Employment Services Newsletter Issue 7 - February 2008
Cafe Azure is serving up some real progress!As you may of seen from the Azure Garden Centre Car Park or from Station Road, Cramlington the timber frame construction of Cafe Azure is in its advanced stage.
Whilst these building works are being conducted we endeavor to keep our Garden Centre and Coffee Shop running with the minimum of inconvenience to our customers.
Please logon to www.cafe-azure.co.uk/progress.htm for updates and recent photos.
Azure Company Newsletter - December 2007 -
PDFEmployment Services Newsletter - September 2007 -
PDFAzure Company Newsletter - August 2007 -
PDFAzure
Annual Report 2007 -
PDFAzure
Company Newsletter - April 2007 -
PDFWorkstep
- Compliments
all round for Gail
Gail Hunter (pictured left) was both surprised and delighted to be handed a very complementary comment card by a customer last month. Gail, who works as a Catering Assistant for MacLellan and accesses support through Workstep, quickly passed the comment card onto her supervisor. The positive comments were expressed by a regular customer who highlighted Gail’s friendly manner and stated how she was missed whenever she was on holiday.
Gail has worked for the catering service based within the DWP building at Longbenton for more than 20 years. During her time with the company, Gail has established a very efficient work routine which she starts at 7am each morning.
Gail’s supervisor, Denise Cullen agreed with the recent customer comments, saying, ‘Gail is greatly missed if she is ever off work and her colleagues often give her a big hug when she returns, as they are so glad to see her back.’
Azure
Company Newsletter - December 2006 -
PDFEmployment
Services Newsletter October 2006 - PDFAzure makes the grade with the Adult Learning Inspectorate 
Azure Employment Services is celebrating after earning the approval of the government’s Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI). The ALI recently inspected the Charity’s Workstep provision and the results have just been officially released.
Azure was awarded grade 2 for leadership and management, equality of opportunity and overall delivery of the Workstep programme. A grade 2 is considered to be good by ALI standards.
The report identified that the Charity had implemented a wide range of strategies to support their clients to overcome personal and work-related barriers. ALI also acknowledged that Azure was very effective at matching clients to employment opportunities.
The inspection involved four inspectors spending a week within the organisation. The inspectors carried out interviews and observations with Azure staff and also with clients and employers accessing the Workstep programme.
Azure Employment Services would like to thank everyone who took part in the inspection process and for helping to make it so successful.
A complete copy of Azure's inspection report can be downloaded from the ALI
website.
Azure
Company Newsletter August 2006 - PDFAzure
Annual Report 2006 - PDF
Going
to GdanskAzure's Training and Development Manager, Carol Robson, is going to Gdansk.
Carol will be one of five representatives from the UK delivering workshops at a conference in Poland. The conference is being held in Gdansk by the RC Foundation on Wednesday 23rd of August. Carol will be delivering a 2 hour interactive presentation outlining the success of Azure's Horticulture and Basic Skills course.
Update: Some photos of the trip courtesy of Gordon A Jones
Race for LifeCancer Research UK’s Race for Life is the biggest women-only fundraising event in the UK with races taking place all over the country. Over 3000 women came together on Sunday 21st May 2006 at Saltwell Park to walk, jog and run the 5km course round Gateshead.
Race for Life is sponsored by Tesco and so it was not surprising that the staff of Tesco South Shields were keen to take part in the annual event as usual.
Suzanne, who accesses Azure’s Workstep programme has been working as a General Assistant at the branch for 3 years now and each year she has taken part in the Race for Life.
Altogether, 65 women from the store turned out on the red hot day in May and stuck together to take on the 5km course dressed as Cheerleaders. This year the race was even more personal for the Tesco team as a colleague has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and is currently receiving treatment.
Not surprisingly, Suzanne took every opportunity to gather sponsorship for the event and managed to gain support from the Employment Services team when attending a training course at Azure.
In total the Tesco team raised £2,464 for Cancer Research UK and also gained some valuable publicity for the event with a full page article in the Shields Gazette, with a follow up story due out soon.
Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
Wendy and Susan, both Restaurant Associates at BHS in Newcastle have been recognised for their commitment and dedication to their work.
Susan has recently been awarded with a gold ‘A’ badge for cleaning
while Wendy was recognised for her customer services skills and has also
been awarded with a gold ‘A’ badge. The ‘A’ stands
for Above and is the first of four stages in the BHS employee recognition
scheme known as:
Above and Beyond the Call of Duty.
Wendy and Susan are pictured with colleague Bill and Restaurant Manager Ann Westberg. Ann moved to her current position 3 months ago from another BHS store and has already established an excellent working relationship with the entire team.
Between them, Wendy, Susan and Bill have over 27 years of service with BHS. However, they are still among the few remaining clients accessing support through Azure’s Workstep programme not technically employed by the company they work for everyday.
Vicki Arkle, Workstep Adviser with Azure, is working very closely with the BHS Regional Human Resources department to ensure that the employment status of the 3 colleagues will be transferred over to BHS in the near future.
Employment
Services Newsletter April 2006 - PDF
Azure Company
Newsletter April 2006 - PDF
Azure Garden Centre launches new websiteTo complement the change of name from Shaw Garden Centre to Azure Garden centre and the redevelopment of the Shop site and outdoor area, we have launched a new website.
At the moment the website is in Phase 1 where some of our stock is listed and departments are listed for easy navigation.
Phase 2 will include all stock with even greater depth of navigation into your chosen product.
The final phase will bring an element of e-commerce with options for buying online and organising delivery.
Employment Services Newsletter January 2006
A New Start for a New Year
Bob Tabiei, originally from Iran is starting out the New Year with a brand new job. Bob came to the region 1 year ago as an asylum seeker with his eldest son. Bob had worked in Iran for the past 24 years as an Auto Electrician before leaving for the UK early in 2005.
Bob has now settled in Gateshead and his wife and second son have since joined them from Iran in order to reunite the family. Bob regularly visited his local Jobcentre to look for work and applied for many vacancies, but after several months Bob soon realised that his recent heart operation was making employers wary of taking him on.
In March last year, Bob met with Stuart Bentham, the Disability Employment Adviser based at Gateshead Jobcentre to discuss his situation. Stuart referred Bob to our Employment Services department and it was here that he met Tony Kelly, an Adviser in our Workstep team. Tony quickly set about trying to match a suitable vacancy to Bob's requirements.
While Bob was looking for work and applying for jobs he attended an ESOL course (English for Speakers of Other Languages) at Gateshead College.
Towards the end of December, Tony matched a job vacancy within Newcastle University’s Union Society, an employer the Charity already has strong links with. Bob applied for the job, had an interview and was successful. Bob has settled in very quickly to his new job as a Porter within the Union Society, he said, ‘I accept that I am at a different time in my life, it is a new environment for me but it is like working with friends and family.’
