Michael Ward
Michael Ward, co-founder of City Academy
City Academy is a performing arts academy in London.
They provide evening and weekend classes in performing arts for over 18s. The company have roughly 30 people in their team which include teachers, directors and operations assistants.
The City Academy has participated in the DWP Future Jobs Fund Scheme, being delivered by Striding Out.
City Academy has created 2 job roles for the Future Jobs Fund which has enabled them to do tasks which were desperately needed such as venue research and relationship building. They hired Heather Cupid for their role of Customer Service Assistant and are impressed with how she is progressing.
“This scheme is a much needed additional resource for small businesses and I would definitely recruit through Future Jobs Fund in the future”.
Heather Cupid is a Dance Performance Graduate who had been
unemployed for almost 8 months when she came onto the Future Jobs Fund programme. She managed to beat off 3 other competitors
and landed herself a job at the City Academy, a theatre school for over
18s.
The job as a Customer Service Assistant originally appealed to her due to her experience in a similar field as well as the fact that the job involved working within the performing arts industry. Her job role currently involves research for venues as well as client correspondence and booking venues. She has improved her multi-tasking skills as well as how she works in general.
She is enjoying her job and finds the work load extremely balanced and gets on well with her fellow colleagues. Heather also enjoys her coaching sessions and believes they are helping her figure out what she wants to do in the future. The job itself has provided Heather with work experience in a role that is key to the company and has allowed to her gain more responsibility in a work environment.
"Striding Out has provided me with a good job which allows me to learn every time I come into the office. I am in a nice environment and am happy working with my coach".
About the Future Jobs Fund
The Future Jobs Fund provides employers with a grant to employ an unemployed young person for a 6mth period.
FInd out more about the Future Jobs Fund Programme here
