East End job plan launched

Unemployed graduates in London's East End will soon be able to enrol on an innovative job-seeking scheme run by the local Training and Enterprise Council.

Gradplan is being offered by London East TEC in conjunction with a professional training company Millennium Training, based in Stratford. There will be 15 places for graduates who have been unemployed for at least six months and who live in some of London's most run-down areas, including Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

Essentially a four-week course of training and job search activity, Gradplan will include sessions on transferable skills, effective analysis of vacancy details, and vital interview techniques. Students will be drilled in management techniques and assertiveness, and given professional guidance on putting together a high quality CV.

Leaders of blue-chip companies are being lined up to talk to the students, and major companies have expressed interest in recruiting from Gradplan graduates, including Sainsbury's, Tesco, Ford and McDonald's. The students will be enrolled on a graduate recruitment database used by more than 50 major companies.

Dave Rogers, London East TEC director of training and development, said: "Graduates have a great deal of skills and enthusiasm to offer, but they often find themselves in the Catch 22 situation of 'no job, no experience -- no experience, no job'. Gradplan will provide them with the essential skills to take that first vital step on the employment ladder."