What we do

We have four key areas of expertise:

Programme 1: Back-to-Work programme

This programme is at the heart of Tomorrow’s People mission to get people back into work. It centres around one-to-one support and mentoring that our specialist advisers provide to unemployed individuals to help them back to work.

A range of tailored, confidential services is provided at no cost to the individual. Support includes action planning and basic skills assessment to explore options and training needs, CV writing advice, help with application forms, intense job search, free access to newspapers and stationery, confidence building, interview techniques and basic computer skills.

We reach the long-term unemployed by locating our specialist employment advisors directly in their communities, for example in libraries, colleges, community centres, neighbourhood housing offices, mosques and churches.

In addition, people with health issues arising from disability, long-term and mental illness, injury, drug and alcohol abuse, are specifically targeted by our employment advisers based in doctor’s surgeries, health centres, pain clinics and hospitals. For case studies of individuals supported through our GP employment adviser service click here

View a short movie about our GP employment adviser project.

Programme 2: Support for young adults

"Today’s employers are seeking a wider range of skills that include communication, interpersonal skills and developing a work ethic. Students, schools and employers need to work together to ensure that school leavers are ready for work" Eileen Arney, Learning and Development Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Young people are particularly vulnerable to unemployment in our society. Low achievers in school who emerge onto the work scene with no skills or formal qualifications face an almost impossible task to find a sustainable job.

Helping disadvantaged young people is a fundamental part of what we do. Our two main programmes are Working It Out and our Schools Employment Adviser Scheme.

Working It Out

This specialist programme targets excluded young people, helping them develop life-management skills and gain practical work experience through a series of community challenges.

The aim is to help these marginalised youngsters find work, education or training. Supported by a leader and co-ordinator, small groups of young adults aged 16+ undertake local projects that benefit the community and improve the environment. Projects include renovating community centres and cleaning up and deterring graffiti from public areas. The team work and planning involved in the process reinforces the other skills training they benefit from on this programme.

Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and KPMG indicated that employers are more interested in school leavers having good communication skills and a strong work ethic than literacy and numeracy skills. Working It Out meets that need.

Find out how we help transform lives and read an independent evaluation of our Working It Out programme

Schools Employment Adviser Programme

This programme involves the location of a Tomorrow’s People Employment Adviser in schools to work specifically with young people who are in danger of leaving education with nothing to show for it. This complements the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, a national initiative designed to improve the nation’s secondary educational standards.

We believe placing our mentors in BSF schools will ensure that the most vulnerable youngsters - who are almost always beyond the reach of the schools careers service - leave school with a job or training place and a plan for the future. What’s more, we also use the school environment to open up our employment support service to parents and the wider community, providing a range of employment programmes and other initiatives.

Programme 3 – The Junction and Social Enterprise initiatives

Social deprivation + lack of skills or education + drug or alcohol abuse + criminal record = no job, no hope, no future.

This is a bleak equation. Yet it is faced by anyone forced onto the margins of society through poverty, lack of skills or education, poor employment opportunities and other social disadvantages. Without effective and targeted support, many of these people will never become economically independent and re-enter society.

Tomorrow’s People is therefore developing a number of new projects to break this cycle:

The Junction – a dedicated residential project that helps ex-offenders and other socially excluded individuals train and work in businesses run by the project. To find out more,click here for a short film or click here for a prospectus
Social Enterprises – The journey from unemployment into work can be very tough for some. A staged approach is needed, including a supportive employment environment to help these people develop their skills and confidence. We are therefore developing a number of social enterprises – businesses that trade for profit but recognise their social mission to provide an intermediate step for those in need. An advisor will provide one-to-one and group support to ensure that people working within these social enterprises can graduate into long-term work.
Tailored Back-to-Work programme for ex-offenders - We increasingly encounter people who have complex barriers to overcome before they can get a job. For example, we work with the Probation and Prison services and provide programmes to help ex-offenders into work. We can also offer support for people in custody or serving community sentences to ensure they are employable on release. We can provide training opportunities through our social enterprises to ensure they have the right skills to get back into work.
Pre-employment programmes - We provide a specialist programme for offenders which helps them develop life-management skills and gain practical work experience through a series of community enterprises. The aim is to give offenders an employment history, to help them break the cycle of custodial sentences, re-offending and re-addiction. The programme helps offenders develop team work, communication, self-confidence and discipline, personal finance and budgeting skills which will have a positive impact on the educational or employment potential of those who have completed the programme upon release from prison.

Programme 4: Sickness and Absence Management services for business

"It is estimated that the direct cost of absence (simply lost salary and production) cost UK employers £12.2bn in 2004. Adding indirect costs, it is estimated that absence costs employers £28.6bn annually" Who Cares Wins, Absence and Labour Turnover 2005, CBI, May 2005

The cost of problem absenteeism in the UK is widely recognised and significant. Absenteeism has direct costs of lost productivity and compensation. However, it also has indirect impact on the morale of co-workers, leads to dissatisfied customers, and places strain on corporate health schemes.

Action can make a difference – indeed, top performing companies have almost two weeks less absence on average than problem companies. However, traditional approaches to absence management are lacking.

Tomorrow’s People offer a Sickness and Absence Management Programme which combines audit and consultancy with training and high intensity employee/employer counselling. The programme deals with the underlying issues that cause a problem, through employee and employer mentoring. This programme also aims to assist companies in dealing with long-term sickness and recurrent absenteeism, and through this work, intervene to prevent potential unemployment.

To arrange a meeting with Tomorrow’s People to discuss this service, click here