TOUCHWOOD, Solihulls retail and leisure development, has created more than 2,300 new jobs.
The complex comprises a major three-storey department store for the John Lewis Partnership, which created 1,000 of those jobs and more than 80 other retail units, restaurant and leisure facilities and a multiplex cinema.
Birmingham & Soli-hull Learning and Skills Council, which developed a close working relationship with Jobcentre Plus, was heavily involved with the recruitment and training undertaken during the construction stage of the development. Eight hundred construction workers were employed on the site, facilitated by a partnership of the local LSC, Jobcentre Plus, Solihull College, Soli-hull Metropolitan Borough Council and the developers Land Lease.
That partnership has continued during the recruitment for the retail and hospitality vacancies. The objective was to recruit from the local community and a recruitment centre was established on site. A number of road shows took place in local communities, with employers from the Touchwood site marketing their vacancies at these events.
To date, 30 per cent of the total number of Touchwood vacancies have been filled with unemployed job seekers, 20 per cent of these representing black and ethnic minorities.
Unemployed people using an exclusively designed recruitment package, filled a quarter of the John Lewis Partnership vacancies.
A total of 7,000 application packs were issued to job-seekers and nearly 4,500 returned. Now the facility is open, the Touchwood Hub has been established by the core partners. This is a physical facility on the top floor of Touchwood, offering both recruitment and training opportunities.
The objective of local people benefiting from local jobs is being further supported through the RDAs Skills Development Fund that supports a team of outreach workers, which operate in local communities promoting the employment and training communities. Since it opened last September, the Hub has placed 615 people in employment, with 560 vacancies filled by unemployed people. A further 700-plus enrolments have been achieved at the training facility. Approximately 90 per cent of
Touchwood employers have used the Job Shop since it opened, including Uniglo, Next, Cineworld, Pizza Hut, Superdrug, TGIs and Gap. The Route to Work Outreach team, which is based in the community, has contacted 61 community organi-sations and made 19 referrals to employment and training to date.
