GET STARTED - March 2021

WORK OPPORTUNITIES

Temporary Manufacturing Staff with Nissan

Nissan are currently recruiting up to 100 temporary manufacturing staff to join their production line at Sunderland.

With a starting salary of £21,189 per annum. these roles are perfect for anyone who can read and understand processes, are flexible, have the confidence to identify and raise concerns and are safety conscious.

Previous experience though advantageous is not required, and you need to be 18 or over and eligible to work in the UK to apply.

The closing date to apply is the 14th May.

You can find out more here.

Family Entrepreneurs with Family Gateway

Family Gateway are a charity that run programmes to work with and support families, children and young people in the region. They are currently looking to expand their growing team and to hire three Family Entrepreneurs who will be supporting the work they do in supporting families and young people in the North Tyneside, South-East Northumberland and Newcastle areas.

The right candidates will have had experience and have overcame difficulties similar to those of the families and young people they support, will be resilient, confident in working in and with the local community as well as being empathetic, organised, considered, calm and confident as well as an excellent communicator.

You must also be eligible for an enhanced DBS, or currently have one. 

If this sounds like you, please email admin@familygateway.co.uk or give them a call on 0191 6437955 to request an application form, job description or to arrange an informal chat about the roles.

The closing date to apply is Friday the 19th of March at 5PM.

ONLINE COURSES AND TRAINING

Level 1 in Understanding Enterprise

Are you thinking of doing some online courses, but dread the thought of being talked at for hours, or having to use tricky online portals? Fear not! 

This course is delivered in a creative way which helps you to learn the real skills employers are looking for, and can develop your own entrepreneurial mindset to even set up your own side hustle for some extra cash to pay for all the exciting summer activities once restrictions are lifted. 

The next session is due to start 12th April and it is FREE for all residents of North and South Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland aged 19 and over. The course runs for 4 hours per week over 8 weeks and includes group activities, learning by doing and one to one support. As well as a recognised qualification you'll also begin to develop the all important networks you need with local businesses.

One of our past learners said "The tutors were very understanding when it came to doing work, and gave me enough time to get it done. I rarely felt on edge and always felt like I could be myself."

Click here to read more of our reviews, or contact us directly to take those first positive steps towards doing your own thing. 

Free Online courses with Coursera

Coursera is one of many places you can access online free courses to help improve your future career prospects, or to undertake some personal development. They even have some free courses which are very fitting with our theme of Creativity this month, such as 'Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success' or 'Ignite your Everyday Creativity'.

If you are able, you can also pay to have these formally recognised with a certificate - which you can then add to your LinkedIn page.

As we are approaching the lifting of restrictions and hopefully much better opportunities within the job market, what better time than now to spend a few hours every week making yourself stand out from the crowd!

CREATIVITY

‘Creativity’ is one of the fifteen EntreComp competencies and can be characterised as ‘being innovative, developing new and exciting ideas to create value as well as finding better solutions to existing challenges.’

So, after covering setting our Vision for 2021, as well as spending some time on Planning and Management – it is time to get CREATIVE!

You might thing that creativity is just something people are born with, or that you need to be an expert at something to get creative with it – this isn’t actually the case, anybody can be creative your creativity will just be used in different ways. 

Being Creative isn’t just about being ‘artistic’ – for many people, mention creativity and they’ll instantly think of painting, drawing and maybe even penning a novel but it's much more than that.

Perhaps you wedged a bit of cardboard under the leg of a wobbly table, made something for tea just using the ingredients left over in your fridge or found a new and quicker way to tie up your hair this morning. This is all Creativity!

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

One of the easiest ways you can be creative is by learning to ask the right questions – so what do we mean by this? You’ve probably never heard of Kevin Systrom, but you’ve likely used his product – Instagram. 

He originally set out to answer the question ‘can I create a great location-sharing app?’ but a much better question turned out to be ‘how can we create a simple photo-sharing app?’ which ultimately led to the creation of Instagram.

Changing up the question you are asking, can lead to all kinds of new creative thoughts and ideas – so give it a go. Try writing ten variations of the same question, as quickly as you can – so if your question is ‘how can I build a better mousetrap?’ you could ask:

‘How do I get the mice out of my house?’

What does a mouse want?’

‘How can I make my backyard more attractive to a mouse than my house?’

Chances are one of your other questions will be better than the original.

PLAY AND PRETEND

No, this isn’t an excuse to play games but instead to sit and ponder and even an excuse to not do somethings (straight away at least). Take some time to imagine what you might be doing five years from now – then write a history of how you got there, what steps you took and what obstacles you overcame.

Also, leave something undone and go to bed – often this task will be easier to start the next day and this is all about your subconscious having time to think about these and potentially giving you some hidden insight.

Finally – do something brand new. Whether that be the typical creatives activities like drawing or painting, or something completely alien to you – juggling, becoming a TikTok superstar or planting your very first herb garden.

All this time relaxing will allow your creativity to blossom.

GENERATE LOTS OF IDEAS

Pick a random object and try to think of as many uses of that object as possible – for example, can you use a coat hanger to drink water? You might be thinking no, but really think about it and make a list.

(Does piercing a water bottle and letting the liquid run down and creating a regular drip from which you could drink from count?)

If you get stuck, then flip this over and try to think of many things as possible that it can’t be used for – then try to disprove yourself. 

COMBINE IDEAS

Take two pre-existing ideas and smash them together, to see if you come up with something brand new. Combining two things like this can lead to some brilliant examples of creativity (just remember, once upon a time somebody put wheels on a briefcase and now we all use suitcases when we go on holiday).

Why not jump to the same page in two different books and see if you can write a story that somehow connects them?

Reach out and engage with people who are different from yourself, working with people who have had different life experiences is a great way to discover new and exciting things and to see things through a different lens – which can all help contribute to your growing creativity.

These are just a few of the many different ways you can teach yourself to be more creative, and if you don’t like any of the suggestions above then try and find your own ways of being creative (which is in and of itself, also super creative. Kinda meta, right?)

SUPPORT

• Talking Therapies -  If you are struggling with mental health, but feel you don't want to trouble your GP then you can self refer yourself. Don't suffer in silence contact talking therapies for free, friendly, confidential support.  
• Samaritans -  If you or anyone you know may be at risk of suicide you can call their free listening service for free 116 123 .
• Campaign Against living Miserably CALM - Provides listening services, information and support for men at risk of suicide, including a web chat.
• Kooth - Counsellors available until 10pm every day. Free, safe and anonymous online counselling for young people. Check whether this is offered in your area.
• Cruse – Cruse offer bereavement and counselling for anyone who is going through loss. You can contact them via their website or by calling 0808 808 1677.

FOR THOSE OF YOU SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE IF YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE.

Not much has changed since last month, so the lockdown rules continue to be the same. 

LOCKDOWN RULES

It is important that during this time we all play our part and follow the current lockdown rules which are regularly updated by the BBC here.

Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
• Communal religious worship
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*

REMEMBER! The last point there is really important. If you are in at risk of harm or violence then you are allowed to leave to get away from the danger.

Thank you for joining us this month and make sure to return next month for our hand-picked opportunities chosen especially for you! Remember, that if these opportunities aren't right for you, they may be relevant to a friend or family member so give them a nudge and send them our way.

If you'd like to join our Newsletter so that you can get a monthly reminder direct to your inbox the first Saturday of every month please sign up here.

Finally, if you're a business or organisation and would like us to shout out about your opportunities you can contact us here.