‘Family-friendly working’ policies and the support available to businesses employing parents will be the focus of a lunch-and-learn event open to Aberdeen employers next month.
ABZWorks, Aberdeen City Council’s Employability and Skills service, has organised a series of employer sessions aimed at making the city more inclusive in employment terms and jobs more accessible for people with barriers to work.
The first event focuses on family friendly recruitment, retention, and progression. It will highlight the various supports, including funding, available to employers taking on parents and will share case studies and good practice. It will also highlight the knowledge and experience parents can bring to the workplace.
Being able to access employment or progress into a better paid job can be a way out of poverty for many people.
Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Christian Allard said: “I was a single working parent for ten years, therefore I know how important it is for employers to be flexible to help their business in the recruitment and retention of employees.
“By raising awareness of the benefits of having a family-friendly work place to employers and promoting the support available to parents, particularly new parents, we can all help to make Aberdeen a better place for people to live, work and raise a family.”
City employers can sign up to this free event, which is being held from 12noon until 2pm, on Thursday 2 November at Aberdeen Beach Ballroom, at http://bit.ly/3Q4na7y
The event is being delivered as part of the Council’s Parental Employability Support Fund activity, funded by the Scottish Government.
ABZWorks offers a broad range of support for businesses including seed funding for business start-up in partnership with Business Gateway, an Employer Recruitment Incentive Scheme and paid work experience schemes.
Anyone living in Aberdeen seeking employability support can contact ABZWorks by calling the helpline on 01224 346100, emailing abzworks@aberdeencity.gov.uk or by completing the self-referral form https://forms.office.com/r/s4eXcZ0Xz8.
Further information about ABZWorks is available at https://abzworks.co.uk/employability-support.
The next session, on Wednesday 29 November, will focus on young people. Future sessions will include employing people with convictions; people with disabilities; and displaced people and refugees.