Manager of the Our Colchester BID, Sam Good, said “We have been devastated by the recent loss to our town centre through Topshop/Topman & Debenhams closure announcements with a large number of jobs lost as a result. Therefore, we wanted to do something to help the former employees of these businesses and others that have also lost their job.

“We have a wealth of excellent organisations with vacancies to fill and we hope that this programme can give former employees of organisations such as Arcadia and Debenhams their next career move. We are over the moon to have partnered with local recruitment experts, Lighthouse Personnel, who will deliver the webinars and Speed Interview Day with us

“We also recognise that redundancy is a really hard process, so we’re pleased to have partnered with HeadsUp, who offer employment support to people in Essex who are unemployed and need help building confidence and facing anxiety around seeking work. It’s not uncommon to find unemployment and redundancy a stressful situation and can cause people to feel low and have a real knock to their confidence, so seeking support is important.  Funded by the European Social Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund HeadsUp offers free 1:1 peer support, wellbeing workshops and practical skills such as CV writing, interview practise and introductions to digital job searching. The programme is free and you can find out more here https://enableeast.org.uk/headsup/