Helping people into work
Employment rate
Coventry’s employment rate for working age residents has increased from 71.9% in 2023 to 72.2% in 2024, reflecting the impact of local employment initiatives to mitigate the challenging business environment since the pandemic. Levels of economic inactivity in the city have reduced although only by 0.1% to 22.3%, remaining above the national figure which has increased by 0.2% to 21.4% and the West Midlands figure with inactivity rising by 0.7% to 21.9% across the region. For Coventry the rates of inactivity are also partly magnified by the city’s high student population.
Unemployment rate
Coventry’s unemployment rate has seen a small reduction from 5.8% in 2023 to 5.6% in 2024. The national rate has remained static at 3.8% (Mar 24). These figures reflect the challenge the city faces in recovering from the pandemic in the face of tough business conditions caused by high prices and interest rates. Additionally changes within the benefit system have seen a movement of claimants from inactive benefits to Universal Credit, further increasing overall unemployment rates.
Using Local Skills Improvement Plan intelligence to build on our Skills Strategy work
The West Midlands and Warwickshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) was developed by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and presents findings from extensive business engagement on key skills needs. This document has informed our ongoing Skills Strategy Framework for Action work, strengthening our focus on ensuring Skills Providers are effectively engaging with businesses and providing the right skills offers. In addition, the LSIP unlocked the £10m Local Skills Improvement Fund for the regions FE Colleges. We have worked to ensure that this fund provides good value for Coventry residents and businesses in areas such as a regional Adult Skills Portal and improved employer engagement for Coventry College.
Supporting Young People into Work
The Coventry Youth Hub provides a fully integrated service for all young people who are aged 16-29 and claiming Universal Credit, enabling Job Shop advisors and JobCentre Plus staff to support Coventry’s young people to re-engage with training and the labour market. This year the Coventry Youth Hub has supported 466 young people into part-time and full-time work. Due to the work of the Job Shop, the average number of supported interventions required to help young people secure good quality work has decreased to 5.5, from 7 the previous year, demonstrating the great links between the Job Shop and local industry. Coventry continues to maintain a relatively low Youth Unemployment rate of 5.6% of 18–24-year-olds, compared to the West Midlands average of 7.3%.
An Enhanced Job Shop Service Offering
As part of the City Centre South developments, Coventry City Council’s Job Shop has relocated to its new premises at the West Orchards Shopping Centre. In order to meet the challenge of tackling the number of people classified as economically inactive, the Job Shop has implemented a new ‘hub and spoke’ delivery model, which will widen its reach with Job Coaches providing tailored support across the city.
The new Job Shop boasts a new customer sign-in system which can be used in 10 different languages, a large street-facing shop window, and a total of 19 screens displaying content such as job opportunities, events and partner / business recruitment activity.
The Job Shop first opened in Hertford Street in March 2012 as part of Coventry City Council's Jobs Strategy to help local people find work and after proving a huge success it found the need to move to bigger premises in the Bull Yard in 2013. Since 2013, more than 60,000 Coventry residents have registered and the Job Shop team has supported over 15,000 people into good quality employment, whilst working with 200 businesses each year to support their recruitment.
In 2023/24 the Job Shop achieved 6,301 new customer registrations, and 46,059 customer engagements (i.e. CV writing, 1:1 support, job searching etc). The Shop helped 818 of its customers to get jobs this past year and supported over 200 local businesses. These figures are slightly lower than the previous year reflecting the transition required following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the subsequent closure of all European Social Funded Employment Initiatives.
Progress continues to be made through the Coventry Skills Strategy Framework for Action by increasing the number of adults moving into employment through successful employer co-designed pre-employment courses, which provides unemployed residents with the skills businesses require. In academic year 2023/24 (to date) 688 Coventry residents have moved into paid employment directly after completing their courses. This is up from 363 in academic year 2021/2022.
Case Study 1
Since the new Job Shop location opened its doors in May, the shop has been busier than ever before. Many customers have been supported into work, further training and education. One of the first customers we supported in the new shop had many barriers for her to achieve her next step in her career. This included, being a recent migrant and being new to the UK job market, lack of work experience in the UK and lack of suitable roles for their skillset in Coventry. Being a primary carer for her children also limited the roles available to her, as well as being unable to travel far for roles due to not being able to drive. After extensive job searching and a recommendation from a friend, they visited the Job Shop for some support.
The first step was to ensure that we set short term and long-term goals. Before we started looking for suitable roles, we wanted to improve the quality of their applications to better suit the UK market and enhance their CV in readiness to send to employers. On offer at the Job Shop there are many workshops that customers can attend, these include CV Workshops, Job Application Workshops and Job Ready Workshops. The customer attended all 3 of these workshops and found them extremely useful, especially as they were during times that coincided with school hours, meaning they had plenty of time to pick up their children from school.
Due to the customer’s lack of experience in India and the UK, the next step was to look at what type of roles are in the local area and what skills, training and qualifications they require to be successful at interviews. The participant has extensive experience in the banking sector, specializing in HR. These were the sectors that they wanted to continue working in, if this provided the flexibility needed with childcare. The customer found this extremely useful, as it boosted their confidence, knowing that there is a role suitable for them in the local area. However, due to their lack of experience in customer service, we discussed how to overcome this, and agreed that volunteering was the best way forward.
The participant successfully completed a series of volunteering sessions with the Job Shop to enhance their customer service skills. During these sessions, they provided valuable assistance in both the reception and computer areas, proving to be a significant asset to the Job Shop. With the Job Shop's support, the participant was able to better structure their job search activities, which in turn, led to multiple job interviews as they improved the quality of their applications.
After being offered a role at one company, with the help of the Employer Engagement Team, we were able to negotiate flexible working hours, which included some homeworking due to childcare responsibilities. This is something that the customer was overjoyed with.
In the space of a month, the customer’s attitude towards work, completely changed. Instead of being anxious about how work in the UK would affect childcare, and if they would find suitable work related to their previous experience, they are now awaiting a start date with their dream UK job with a small business in the city centre!
Case Study 2
In June, a customer came into Job Shop looking for employment support after he recently completed his English and Maths course. Having been out of work for a while, this had impacted his confidence when looking for work. As our support is tailored for each individual, I initially booked him in for weekly 1-1 appointments with myself, as well as a Confidence and Motivation Workshop in the Job Shop.
During our 1-1 appointments we found that he had a lot of IT barriers, which in turn meant he was unaware of how to effectively job search and had issues with completing job application forms online. We also found that his CV had been written with pen and paper, therefore the first step was to support him in typing this out for him, so that he would have a digital version when applying for jobs online. During his initial appointment, the customer was also booked with the Adult Education Service to complete a Digital Skills Assessment as part of the 50+ Choices Workshops for jobseekers over the age of 50 we have running at the Job Shop.
During the following appointments, we identified suitable job opportunities that would work for him alongside a possible IT course in September. Despite his qualifications and experience, he often found it challenging to stand out in a competitive job market. As this process took a little longer than what the customer expected, his financial situation became a source of worry for him, therefore we booked an appointment with an inhouse Money Advisor to seek some support with their budgeting, and to see if he would be eligible to claim any additional financial support.
Whilst this was taking place, the customer started to get more and more invitations to interviews, this boosted his confidence massively, especially after attending an interview skills workshop.
At the end of July, the customer was successful at an interview with a company for one of their part time cleaning roles. This was perfect for him as the shifts align perfectly for when he will also be starting their IT course in September to improve their digital skills.
He was thrilled and extremely grateful for the help and support received.
Young People Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET)
Coventry’s 2023 combined figure of 3.5% is an improvement on the last five years’ performance and represents an all-time low. Coventry remains below (better than) both England and West Midlands average NEET performance. Coventry City Council have successfully commissioned Prospects (part of Shaw Trust) to carry out NEET tracking and engagement work. This partnership has continued to support Coventry young people to achieve positive destinations.
These figures demonstrate Prospects’ systematic approach, robust tracking and excellent partnerships with schools, colleges, the Coventry Job Shop and training providers. The figures are testament to the careers education, advice and guidance provided by every secondary school, college and training provider in Coventry which enables Coventry’s young people to engage in the right provision, grasp opportunities and aspire to be their very best.