Free-to-attend Employability seminar, roll up roll up!

A free-to-attend, two-day employability seminar is to take place in York on 24th and 25th September 2014.

A Yorkshire-based social enterprise (Bizenko) has secured European Social Fund backing to run the event for people living in North Yorkshire. Bizenko is the brainchild of entrepreneur Nick Palmer, and is designed to improve the lives of individuals as they prepare to move from education into employment.

Mr Palmer said: “This is a big topic right now. Youth unemployment rates in Yorkshire and Humberside remain higher than for most other regions, in particular the South and South East. In addition, each Autumn there is a new wave of graduates and school leavers trying to accelerate their career planning”.

Bizenko Social Enterprise Ltd. run seminars in schools and colleges to help individuals understand more about their work options, as well as to challenge some of the myths surrounding employment and career planning. One particular myth to bust is that exams alone can secure you a good job. The box that employers want you to “tick” isn’t necessarily exams, but commercial awareness.

The September seminar will deliberately avoid the style of contemporary careers advice. Mr Palmer said: “Most information a job seeker gets from the employment market is either a marketing message promising riches or instructions for an administrative task such as “How to write a CV”. We want to break the mould and train the individuals to think like a business thinks”.

He said that the seminar would be suited to individuals who might want to work in either the private, public or third sectors. He said the commercial thought process was critical to every career choice, even those in organisations that didn’t make profits.

The seminar content has been created by a variety of employers who wish to help individuals find career inspiration. The theme for the two-day event will be “Commercial Awareness” and will cover the skills that most employers consider to be lacking in job-applicants.

Quoting a survey from the Confederation of British Industry, Mr Palmer said: “Employers Organisations have been calling for improved levels of commercial awareness in students for some years. In 2011, as many as 70% of CBI members stated that more needed to be done to improve employability skills within young people. Anecdotally, we’re aware that this sentiment definitely remains in 2014, so we’re delivering a solution”.

Commenting on the grant award, Mr Palmer said: “I’m delighted that this particular Bizenko Social Enterprise project has been financed by the European Union. The European Social Fund has a stated aim to “increase employment and develop a skilled and adaptable workforce”. Our seminar will address this objective with a practical, employer-designed event.
He said he hoped that any recent graduate, school-leaver or unemployed job-seekers would sign up for the free event via email at seminars@bizenko.co.uk

By admin

Bizenko has been created by Nick Palmer to bridge the gap between education and employment. Basically, Nick was miffed when he graduated and didn't understand the commercial world, and once he'd learned a little bit more, he was miffed that the people he needed to employ didn't understand the commercial world. On a hunch that there were lots of people who didn't understand the commercial world, he devised a solution that would save willing participants the cost and heartache Nick incurred to resolve the problem. We hope you enjoy the service.