Knowsley Works supports local businesses by providing an innovative approach to your recruitment needs.

We have developed highly succesful programmes to bridge the skills gap between your requirements as employers and potential employees in the local area.

By identifying these gaps the Knowsley Works Team, partner organisations and training providers have been able to develop individual packages for a wide variety of businesses within Knowsley.

Our work with local people has resulted in a potential pool of committed, qualified and flexible employees.

This has been achieved through our unique apporach to the personal development of all potential employees combined with appropriate training. We are also able to offer a period of financially supported employment, which best suits the needs of the trainees and employer alike. In partnership with local businesses we have utilised the use of work placements to identify the right candidate for your vacancy.

What you can expect.

• Recruitment solutions

• Resource and financial support to employ local people

• Trained and committed employees

• Reliable and responsive job-ready workforce

• No residual recruitment costs

• Existing staff development

Express MDF are a relatively new enterprise who were having difficulty recruiting local people for jobs in manufacturing. They had advertised in local newspapers and with Jobcentre Plus but had little response. They contacted the Knowsley Works Team who discussed their recruitmemt needs and devised a plan to support them in the future. A programme was developed to give local unemployed people the skills required to become a dedicated, hardworking employee of Express MDF. The trainees were also given the personal development and support to cope with the day-to-day pressures of employment such as attendance, timekeeping, behaviour in the workplace etc. The Knowsley Works Team offer a wage subsidy for each and every trainee for a period of time, depending on the trainees needs. All personal developmentand training were again paid for by the Knowsley Works Team.

Express MDF has seen its workforce grow from 10 to 60 employees in the last two years and all but one of the manucfacturing workers have come through the Knowsley Works Team.

‘I was looking to recruit Electronic Installation Engineers when I was approached by a representative from Knowsley Works who was offering support and guidance through the recruitment process. Knowsley Works brought in five people for me to interview and I selected three of them. I was able to get support with their wages for the first thirteen weeks and help with appropriate training for them.

‘The most impressive thing about the people I took on was that they understood the basics such as being on time, not taking sick days, how to behave in work and how to speak to customers. These are things that can make or break a business; after all you’re only as good as your employees.’

Total Glass have been in operation in Knowsley for a number of years. In December 2004 they realised that they needed to increase the size of the workforce to match their ambitious expansion programme. After meeting a representative from Knowsley Works, they decided to take an innovative approach to recruitment needs for the future.

A specific project was set up to train young people in the production process of high quality glazed units from the raw materials to the finished product.

Total are able to draw down a subsidy for each trainee for salaries and training. Their existing staff are involved in on-the-job training with the trainees, which has helped them to develop quickly and effectively. Running the project this way has ensured that the young people receive quality training and eases the burden on existing staff.