Increase your parent power - with help from our employability team

Help for parents to increase their confidence and earning power is now available through Orkney Island Council’s Community Learning and Development (CLD) team.

The CLD team has received funding from Scottish Government’s Parental Employability Support Fund (PESF), to help eligible parents establish goals and progress their ambitions.

A dedicated key worker has been employed by the Council as part of CLD’s wider employability support team to support parents within the Orkney community access information, advice and opportunities available to them.

This support is available to parents whether they are already employed or are looking to gain employment, and can be offered to parents:

• From lower income families.
• who are single.
• who are relatively young.
• those with three or more children.
• with children under 1 year old.
• who have children with a disability, or
• who have a disability themselves.

Help can include supporting parents:

• Gain confident, knowledge and skills.
• Progress learning and training.
• Increase employment opportunities.
• Increase their household income.

Lindsey Johnson is Community Development Officer leading on the PESF project for Orkney. She says support is tailored for the individual: “Everyone’s situation is different – you may have been out of work for a while caring for children, or due to health issues, and may want to work on your confidence. Or you might need more practical help like renewing your CV or picking up training to help you aim for new or more challenging jobs.

“We work with parents to establish what they’d like to achieve, the barriers they want to overcome, and we offer regular contact and support in a way that suits them.

“This has been a tough year and many people may feel they could do with help and advice but are hesitant to come forward – we’d just say this is exactly why we are here.

"Boosting your skills and confidence can only be a good thing for you, your family and wider community, so if you think you may be eligible for assistance please get in touch.”

To arrange to speak to someone about how PESF can help you, contact the Council’s CLD team on employability.support@orkney.gov.uk or telephone 01856 873535 ext 2413, or visit www.orkney.gov.uk/ParentPower

Orkney Islands Council’s Community Learning and Development team offers a range of employability support. To find out more, visit the Employability section of the Council website. 

OIC have been allocated £38k for PESF with additional monies allocated for PESF boost (£18ka and DPESF (£47k) (specifically for working with parents with disabilities). Funding for 2022 is expected to be confirmed in coming months.