Cabot Circus staff working on a bright future

Bright yellow high-visibility jackets have become a familiar sight in Bristol city centre, since work on the 500 million Cabot Circus development began three years ago.

But yesterday there was something different about many of the people wearing them.

 

While some of the fluorescent waistcoats could still be seen on workmen putting final touches to buildings and roads ahead of the grand opening on Thursday, others were being worn by people who seemed unlikely ever to have visited a building site in their lives.

 

The new wearers of the luridly-coloured safety attire ranged from petite young women to smartly-dressed men. They could be spotted making their way around Penn Street in groups, and inside the stores moving stock into place.

 

These were just some of the 4,000 workers who are starting new jobs as a result of the opening of Cabot Circus, and are presently on site helping to get their shops ready.

 

At a time when jobs are being lost throughout the UK and in the United States because of the credit crunch, Bristol has been witnessing the biggest recruitment drive the city has ever seen.

 

Michelle Poulter, liaison manager for Cabot Circus developers  Bristol Alliance, has been in charge of co-ordinating the campaign to find people to fill the jobs.

 

“Having so many new jobs for local people obviously has the potential to create a better economy for the city,” she says.

 

“There are lots of reports about the credit crunch and economic gloom, but Bristol could buck the trend because with Cabot Circus we’re filling a void.

 

“Bristol hasn’t had the shops and the retail experience that should be expected in the eighth largest city in the UK , and the capital of the South West. Two-and-a-half years ago, Bristol was 17th in the national retail rankings. Since then it has dropped further to 25th.

 

“We’ve been falling behind and without this investment we’d continue to fall further.”

For many of the people who are starting work at Cabot Circus, their new job is more than a career move.

 

Some  were not in employment when they were offered their jobs.

 

Not only has the huge variety of work available provided people with opportunities, but many job seekers have also been given support that has ranged from help in writing CVs to advice on benefits.

 

“This has been the biggest recruitment drive that Bristol has ever seen,” says Michelle.

 

“It was identified right back in the early days that filling over 4,000 jobs was going to be a challenge, as Bristol has a lower rate of unemployment than national average.

 

“But there are also pockets of high unemployment where people may need extra help to get into work – ranging from people who are long-term unemployed, or who have issues involving childcare, or who have disabilities, or for whom English is a second language.”

 

We are talking in the Cabot Circus Jobs Bus, a brightly-painted vehicle with racks of advice leaflets and jobs information inside. The bus has become a familiar sight around Bristol over the past year, regularly setting up in Broadmead and also travelling around the Bristol area, especially to areas of high unemployment.

 

Michelle explains: “As much as we’d like everybody to come directly to us, in order to get to people who might think they can’t get a job, we’ve got to go out to them – and give them the advice they need on everything from interview skills, to benefits, to specialist retail training.”

 

The Bristol Alliance has not been directly employing staff for Cabot Circus but  helping retailers, most of whom are new to Bristol, by organising training and job fairs.

 

Michelle recalls: “We had a three-day Cabot Circus jobs fair at the Marriott Hotel which was such an incredible success that people were queuing around the corner.

 

“Over 500 people turned up at a jobs fair at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s, and some of them were offered jobs on the spot.”

 

The Bristol Alliance has been working in partnership with West at Work – an umbrella organisation that brings together training providers and organisations such as Job Centre Plus and Connexions in Bristol and the surrounding region.

 

Will Cookson, West at Work project manager, says: “We’ve been very keen to find out what employers are looking for, and to ensure that job searchers are being trained to meet those needs.”

 

Michelle adds: “We even organised a very specialised course in wok cookery, because that was what fitted in with the requirements of one of the restaurants, Tampopo.

 

“We’ve had some really impressive comments from some of our retailers. They’ve been delighted with the standard of applicants.

 

“But the key message we’re getting from employers is that they’re not necessarily looking for experience – what they want is people with personality who they can train.”

 

There are presently over 26,000 people registered on to a dedicated website for Cabot Circus jobs, and Michelle emphasises that the recruitment drive will not come to an end when Cabot Circus opens on ThursdaySeptember 25 .

 

“We will then start looking for holiday staff for Christmas,” she says.