Do you look after someone? Or perhaps you know someone who does? Families, friends and neighbours often provide crucial care for someone who couldn’t manage without their help. You could be caring for a relative, partner or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems.
Many people leave employment for many years to care for a loved one. If this is you, you may feel like the world of work has left you behind. Then, if your caring role changes and you want to start seeking employment, you might find your skillsets are out of date and the job market has changed beyond recognition. You will also probably need flexibility, and an employer that understands your situation.
Carers Support Centre helps carers feel more confident and better prepared for seeking training and employment opportunities. The charity has helped many carers increase their confidence, remove barriers to training, and move closer to the employment market. Their dedicated employment team provide personalised sessions, working flexibly around your caring commitments to work with you to identify opportunities available.
The charity has just launched a virtual Careers Café, where carers can come along and chat about training and employment opportunities. The online café is also an opportunity to meet other carers who are currently looking for flexible employment or thinking about refreshing their skills. The regular informal sessions highlight opportunities, share ideas and advice and enable carers to support to each other throughout their employment journey.
Local carers who recently attended recommend the café:
“I found the Careers Cafe easy to join and really useful, everyone was very supportive and came up with some good ideas. You don’t know until you try, I would definitely attend again”. Brian
“A brilliant session and so lovely to meet others in a similar situation to myself. It’s very easy to think that you are the only one trying to balance caring responsibilities with your family needs and trying to find a job. It was lovely to be so open about the challenges we are all facing and to help one another”. Sue
If you are an unpaid carer wanting to get back into work, you can contact Carers Support Centre’s employment team.
Employment@carerssupportcentre.org.uk
telephone: 0117 377 1015