Smart Works is a wonderful charity that opened in 2015 and offers a coaching, interview and dressing service to women in Greater Manchester who may need help in getting back into the workplace.
After attending the Smart Works charity ball earlier this year and watching their video about the service that they provide and the women that they make a difference to, I was left feeling incredibly inspired and desperately wanting to get involved.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I take particular joy in backing candidates that don’t always have the strongest of CV’s. Having said that, most of the receptionists, personal assistants, office managers and graduates that we work with only require a small amount of interview preparation and seem to have no hesitation when it comes to what they will be wearing for the interview. We definitely take this for granted.
The Smart Works team see over 8 women per week who come to them for an interview-appropriate outfit to wear to their job interview. They give their clients a complete outfit of clothes and accessories which are theirs to keep. They also provide one-to-one preparation training so that they feel more confident before they go to their interview. You only have to look at the success stories on their website, visit their offices or go on twitter to see the huge impact that they have.
We are delighted to announce that for 2017/2018, for every new client that we place a job with, we will donate £25 to Smart Works. On top of this, I am excited to be attending an interview coaching session next week and will be volunteering to offer interview coaching to candidates going forward.
Please do take a moment to look at their website and if you can help in any way, I’m sure it would be greatly appreciated.
http://smartworks.org.uk/manchester-smart-works/