Of those that applied, 12 women were selected to participate in the scheme and received the training. All completed the course and four were offered a position at the company. The remaining eight have joined a follow-up project run by Equalitec, and financed by Thought Works, to ensure that their job-seeking efforts could also be turned into successes. A month later, as a result of the support provided by Equalitec, 50 per cent of the women secured a job. Thus four months after the retraining, eight out of the original 12 women were successfully returned to industry, the rest were continuing applying for jobs and attending interviews.

For more information about Equalitec and its achievements please go to www.equalitec.org.uk

Portia now offers the service to individuals seeking expert and experienced job-seeking support, who appear to be lacking the necessary self-efficacy skills to make good progress in their recruitment and career advancement objectives. Please send an email to Lynne Bailey, lb@equalitec.org.uk, if you would like to learn more about this service and how you could take advantage of this support.