Employment Support Worker

You'll play a vital role in developing work experience opportunities for adults with learning disabilities as well as supporting our team members into permanent employment. This is a new role which will require you to show heaps of flexibility and learn-as-we-go in order to shape and develop our impact into the future.

If you have pints of personality and want to work for a fantastic cause, we want to hear from you. You’ll be experienced in coaching or mentoring, be well organised and understand the barriers faced by people with a learning disability when moving into employment.

You'll support and develop our team. This means:

• managing a caseload of between 6 and 10 people who are neurodivergent and/or have a learning disability, and who are looking to move into supportive employment locally
• preparing our team members for long-term employment by supporting them to understand their skills, aspirations and goals by offering employment profiling, job matching, action planning and skill development opportunities
• working to a minimum target of 2 adults moving into long term employment by the end of your contract
• undertaking monthly work coaching sessions for team members to develop and upskill them in brewing and bar management skills
• supporting team members to reduce work-related barriers such as travel-to-work, better-off calculations, disclosure of health & wellbeing needs and budgeting
• providing in-work support to assist team members in maintaining and retaining employment, including frequent in-person meetings during the first few months of a successful employment match

You'll be responsible for our employer engagement. This means:

• undertaking tailored job searches and proactive engagement with employers to source supportive, paid job opportunities which meet our team members preferences and match their developing skillset
• identifying potential opportunities for employment within their businesses and sales opportunities amongst employment partners
• providing education and support to employers, which may include negotiating adjustments and on-going employer support to ensure job retention
• building Ignition’s profile as a skills-based, local employment specialist

You will develop our wider employability programme. This means:

• organising and facilitating regular employment taster days for people with learning disabilities looking to move into work in order to raise aspirations and developing an understanding of the workplace
• planning & running CV development workshops to help adults with learning disabilities prepare for the world of work
• developing our evidence-based employability model, drawing on good practice from other sectors, in order to constantly improve and refine the model

As part of your 20 hours per week, you will also be required to undertake one evening or weekend shift per week of up to 6 hours, as a Taproom Supervisor.

What we need from you (the essentials):

• experience of working or volunteering with neurodivergent adults or people with learning disabilities
• experience of leading, teaching, coaching, mentoring or otherwise supporting groups of people
• an understanding of the barriers to employment experienced by adults with learning disabilities
• proven experience of meeting and exceeding outcomes and targets
• well organised with experience of managing a varied workload
• outstanding interpersonal and communication skills with an ability to build rapport with people
• good administrative skills with an ability to use IT and tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• a flexible and hands on approach with an an ability to think and problem-solve independently
• being comfortable trialling new approaches and learning in response

What we’d ideally like from you (the desirables):

• experience of supporting people to obtain employment
• knowledge of the benefits system and how to navigate this when moving into employment
• experience working in a bar or other customer service setting