Big Issue has a three-decades-long legacy of helping people who face barriers to employment earn a legitimate income and lift themselves out of poverty. Big Issue Recruit builds on this: a specialist recruitment agency supporting people from all walks of life to find and keep work that works for them. At two years old, we’re already making a big impact.
The UK has a work problem, and we’re here to be part of the solution. There are more than 800,000 vacant jobs in the UK, while more than 1.51 million people were unemployed between September and November. Why? In our madder, faster world, people face more complex barriers to empowering work which could improve their quality of life – and the economy.
Big Issue Recruit engages with those who face these barriers but want to overcome them. Our job coaches work closely with their candidates to ensure they are upskilled in appropriate areas and equipped with the tools required to successfully move into sustainable employment. When they’re ready to take the next step, we help them find and secure work that works for them.
It requires working on two fronts: with the candidate, and also with potential employers. Many businesses are struggling to hire employees that fit their needs. That’s why we’ve spent our first two years creating strong partnerships with employers up and down the UK, to understand their recruitment needs and to change their culture to be accommodate the barriers we’re seeing in our candidates.
We hit the ground running in year one, building links with referral partners including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Prison and Probation Service, the Royal British Legion and Crisis, and creating pathways for their service users to find our support. Now, as Big Issue Recruit turns two, we’re still growing. We’ve delivered more than 1,677 total hours of training to date; 58% of our candidates completed 12 weeks of training and were certified ‘work ready’. And 120 broke secured job roles that suit their individual needs and interests.
Big Issue Recruit is having a direct impact on the economy, too. We’ve measured our impact, in income generated for individuals and savings for the taxpayer. In just two years of operations, Big Issue Recruit has already delivered more than £2m of social value.
