What is the Future Jobs Fund?

The Fund was announced in Budget 2009 and is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) and with input from Job Centre Plus Regional Government Offices in England and Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales.

The Fund aims to create 170,000 additional jobs, primarily aimed at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for nearly a year to deliver real benefits to communities. The Future Jobs Fund is a part of the Young Person’s Guarantee. From early 2010, everyone in between the ages of 18 and 24 who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job, work experience, or training lasting at least 6 months. We are specifically targeting 50,000 jobs in unemployment hotspots and expect around 10,000 of the 170,000 jobs created to be green jobs.

"We're determined to do everything we can to help people who are being hit by the world recession. Never again must we lose a generation to work. That is why we are working to increase training places and intensive support to help people back into work. We believe its right to help people through the difficult times so that local communities and our national economy can come through this sooner and stronger.”
Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (29 June 2009)

What is Embercombe offering?

Embercombe, in partnership with 3sc, (Third Sector Consortium), can offer 10 jobs starting at the end of March 2010 to young people aged 18 – 24 who have been out of work for 6 months or more.  Under certain circumstances,  (specific skills offered,  insufficient  applicants from the target age group) older applicant may be considered.

These temporary jobs will be paid at the minimum wage for 25 hours (3 days) a week for a period of six months.  There will be training offered, allowing employees under the scheme to gain new skills and, as with all Embercombe employees, everyone will share a free organic home-cooked lunch together from the Embercombe market garden.  Embercombe runs several courses involving personal  development and will offer employees under the Future Jobs scheme mentoring and coaching, including interview techniques,  that will help them to enter the job market with more confidence and increased skills at the end of their 6  month employment period at Embercombe.


How to apply:

You can:
contact your local job centre and ask to be put forward for this opportunity
or
send your CV and a covering letter directly to Embercombe, Higher Ashton, EXETER, EX6 7QT.
If you need more information or help with your application, please contact Clare Mann, Operations Manager at Embercombe on 01647 252983 or clare@embercombe.co.uk. And she will put you in touch with the member of Embercombe staff who can best help you.


Open Day and Interviews:

Wednesday 17th March  11am – 1pm:
Open Morning for all interested candidates to visit the site, meet the existing staff and find out what Embercombe does. 
Lunch provided 1 – 2pm.
Afternoon interviews: For those who are interested in applying, the afternoon will be devoted to interviews and the day will end at 5pm latest.

Thursday 18th March:
2nd interviews by appointment (and possible first interviews for anyone not available the day before)

Friday 19th March:
Decisions will be made and announced.

Probable start date:
Tuesday 6th April


Jobs offered:

Office
To include these areas (2-3 positions – 1 being just office administration for a satellite organisation)

1.Assistant Fund-raiser.  Are you interested in learning the skills needed to raise money for a charitable or community organisation?  Learn techniques for finding sources of funding; developing relationships with grants officers; matching grant criteria to your project; writing proposals; drawing up and monitoring budgets; fund-raising through events and managing the filing of data.  This is a skill set that is more and more in demand.  You would need: some computer skills (for example: word processing; spreadsheets; web searches); enthusiasm and self motivation; writing skills; a fairly ordered approach to office work and a basic grasp of budgets.  The Embercombe  office is a busy place, so you may find yourself multi-tasking (answering the phone; dealing with visitors and queries) and you'll need a determined sense of concentration to get some of the work done!
2.Administration. To help and learn from the day to day running of a busy office.  This could be dealing with general enquiries, taking bookings, organising events and administering budgets.  Again a working knowledge of Microsoft Office would be an advantage along with a friendly telephone manner.
3.Marketing.
This role will teach you all the traditional tools of marketing and how these can be utilised as a positive force for change in the world. You will work alongside our marketing co-ordinator who is a chartered marketer with many years of experience. Learn how to write convincing copy for a wide variety of audiences and media. Help to manage our website, design flyers and advertisements, source photographs, create newsletters and many other tasks! You will need good computer skills (with the ability to learn new packages easily), have excellent communication skills, to be self-motivated and have self-confidence and enthusiasm.

Site Assistant
(1 position)

General maintenance of entire site.  General D.I.Y to include: plumbing, electrical and carpentry. Lifting and Carrying. Cleaning. Digging. Strimming and cutting grass. Chopping wood. Making beds. Lighting fires and a general attitude of involvement in every aspect of the work at Embercombe and its various departments when the need arises. Embercombe will CRB check the successful applicant. Training will be provided with unfamiliar tools eg: strimmers but a general understanding and previous experience of aforementioned duties essential.

Catering Assistant
(1 position)

The Embercombe Kitchen is at the heart of all our programmes and daily life. We prepare a communal lunch every day for our team and when our courses are running, feed groups of all ages and all walks of life, from the very youngest of primary school children to teenagers, those on our personal development courses, and businesses and organisations.
The kitchen is closely linked to our garden and polytunnel where we grow a wide range of vegetables and fruit and our menus are therefore seasonal and influenced by what is abundant!
All our food is organic and mainly vegetarian/vegan although we do occasionally serve local wild venison, and we bake our own bread.
We have a 30 ft yurt as a dining  room leading to outside decking with views across our land and over to Hay Tor, and in the garden we also have two clay bread/pizza ovens which we often use in the summer and for events.

Farm and Garden Assistant
(5 positions)
The woods, gardens and farm at Embercombe provide a resource for many essential materials and food needed for the many and varied programmes that we run.  The land workers will be involved in all aspects as well as in any ongoing construction projects.
There will be the opportunity to learn many new skills needed for woodland, garden and farm management.
Successful applicants should be prepared for hard but very rewarding work in a very supportive, healthy and beautiful working environment.