Supporting economically inactive women into employment
by James Postlethwaite, Marketing Officer – Connecting Choices
Our Connecting Choices programme want to recruit more economically inactive women who live within Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands area. The programme supports people to break down barriers and opens doors to opportunities in training, education, volunteering and work.
Inactive women are underrepresented on our programme, so our team together with our partners want to turn this around.Â
5.13 million women aged 16-64 were economically inactive in October-December 2021, 24.7% of women in this age group. This compared to 3.64 million men aged 16-64 who were inactive.
About Connecting Choices
Connecting Choices works with specialist support partners within Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-Under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands areas to help break down complex barriers for those furthest from the job market. This includes opening doors to opportunities for participants into training, education, volunteering and work.
We take a 1-2-1 person-centred approach that is needs-based, which allows individuals to develop at their own pace.
We support with the following:
- Development of employability skills.Â
- Person-centred support that is needs-based.Â
- Social inclusion through community activities when the individual feels ready.
- Developing a positive mindset by helping you overcome feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, low-confidence in a no-pressure environment.Â
Who the programme supports
Our programme is available to anyone that needs the support, we work with people from a diverse range of backgrounds and barriers to overcome. The support we provide can be from helping participants with a lack of confidence and/or social anxiety to skills development for those that maybe have not been in the workplace before or are long-term unemployed.
Why we are targeting economically inactive women
They are underrepresented on our programme. Economically inactive women are defined as not currently seeking work and they are not registered as jobseekers. This does not mean they have not been working, they could be homemakers or carers, or they could be lacking confidence which stops them entering the workplace.
5.13 million women aged 16-64 were economically inactive in October-December 2021, 24.7% of women in this age group. This compared to 3.64 million men aged 16-64 who were inactive (17.7%). Women have also seen an increase in redundancies, unemployment, and people claiming unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic. Mothers, and women from minority ethnic groups, have been particularly affected by the pandemic.
(Source: House of Commons Briefing Paper: Women and the Economy March 2022).
Today is International Women’s Day, dedicated to honouring the achievements of women throughout history. The day has been celebrated since the early 1900’s all around the globe to raise awareness about the inequality differences between men and women. Even though progress has been made there is still more to improve!
Women face many pressures and are more likely to be economically inactive than men due to looking after the family and home without even realising the impact.
Barriers economically inactive women face
The main issues economic inactive women face is they do not find new opportunities easily due to the limited contact they receive. The importance of raising awareness of programmes like ours is to help educate these individuals about local opportunities for work, education and training available to them and importantly to build their confidence.
Economic inactive women numbers have significantly reduced over the decades, however there are still improvements needed to narrow the gap further. The biggest barriers facing economic inactive women is they could become socially isolated which can have an impact on mental health. This in turn can also lead to low self-esteem especially when the participant has been out of work for a long period of time or never worked due to family commitments including having health issues and disabilities.
If you know someone in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Moorlands or Newcastle-under-Lyme that we can support please contact Natasha Church, Head of Service: natasha.church@ixionholdings.com or 07919 004301.