Working with schools
By 2010, the government has pledged that all families should have access to a variety of extended services in or through their school, as outlined in ‘The Every Child Matters – Change for Children’ agenda. This includes supporting parents’ access to services such as local employment and training advice.
Central government has recognised that the school gates is a unique place where women naturally meet and build important networks; an environment in which they feel safe and confident and where they are physically present almost every weekday. Their children’s school years are also the time when many women begin to think about going back to work, without the need to pay for childcare any more. Regional government agencies are now actively encouraging schools to work with local agencies that can help women who don’t know how to start that fulfilling journey, and desperately want to be working again but may have lost confidence.
“The Education Act 2002 requires schools to consult with pupils, staff, parents and carers, local communities and the local authority to ensure the services they develop are shaped around the needs of pupils and their local community.”
Teacher Net/Teaching & Development Agency
More than 120 schools are now partnering with Women Like Us. At about half the schools, we employ a rep; a mum at the school who can tell interested women more about the service and update them on our current programmes and job opportunities – in the school playground, at coffee mornings and via the school noticeboard.
Once a term, we send letters home in children’s book bags to tell mums more about how we can help them. Supported by government funding, we can offer free career coaching to mothers who are not working, or working less than 16 hours per week. All mothers can use our recruitment service, which puts them in touch with employers offering part-time roles that can fit round their family commitments.
“In keeping with government aims of, in partnership with local areas, working to make sure parents and families have access to support they need, when they need it, schools need to aim to provide specialised, more targeted support available at a local level to meet the needs of families – including employment/training advice.”
Every Child Matters – Change for Children
To find out which schools Women Like Us is currently working with, click here, or to find out more about partnering with us at the school gates contact us from here.