18
June 2018
Funded support boosts Cookson & Clegg’s workforce A LANCASHIRE clothing manufacturer has benefitted from a funded support programme which is helping businesses across the county recruit new staff and achieve growth. Blackburn-based Cookson & Clegg has taken on a new employee thanks to Access to Employment (AtoE) through support from Bootstrap Enterprises. AtoE provides Lancashire businesses with access to potential candidates to help support objectives and achieve growth, in addition to preemployment training. It is delivered through the Lancashire Employment and Skills Executive Partnership’s (LESEP) network of partners located across the county. Cookson & Clegg was founded in Blackburn in 1860 and produces garments for several of the UK’s leading clothing brands, including Marks and Spencer and Burberry. Its services include pattern cutting,
digitising and grading, sampling and bulk manufacturing. After being unemployed for five months and suffering from low confidence, 20-year-old Lee Rogers from Darwen embarked upon a sixweek pre-employment warehousing course, arranged by Bootstrap and delivered at Accrington and Rossendale College. The course equipped Lee with the basic skills required to work in a warehouse environment, including how to check deliveries, monitoring the arrival of fabric and materials and preparing delivery notes, as well as basic employability skills. Lee then began an eight-week work placement at Cookson & Clegg’s factory warehouse in Shadsworth, where he gained industry experience and developed new skills including picking and packing and operating fabric cutting machinery.
Upon completion of the work experience placement, Lee accepted the offer of a full-time position within the company’s warehouse. Victoria Grant, operations director at Cookson & Clegg, said: “We’ve previously struggled to find candidates through traditional recruitment means so Access to Employment has been great. As an employer it’s important for us to be able to create jobs for local people and the programme has helped us to do that. “One of the main benefits of AtoE is that as an employer, we can decide what skills we want potential new employees to be equipped with, so pre-employment training programmes can be tailored to your own business needs." “Lee showed great willingness to learn and a positive attitude, and in him we have a dedicated, hard-working member of staff whose confidence
is building all the time. I’m looking forward to seeing him progress as we continue to grow the business.” Lee added: “After being out of work for five months I’m happy I can now say I am part of a work family. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do before I went on the pre-employment course, but the support and guidance I’ve had has been great.” LESEP secured £6.7million in November 2016 from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and European Social Fund (ESF) to deliver AtoE through its delivery partner network. Preston’s College is the lead accountable body for AtoE.
Forbes underlines commitment to equality with four promotions LANCASHIRE-based Forbes Solicitors has announced the appointment of two new Partners and two new Associates as part of its continued growth. The largest legal practice in the North West outside the major cities has promoted Shirley Wignall and Gill Carr from Associates to Partners. It has also confirmed that Jenny Burke and Amy Stirton have been promoted from Solicitors to Associates. Forbes Solicitors said that it championed equality and diversity and, although promotions were decided purely on merit, the number of women in senior posts was increasing. Siobhan Hardy, Senior Partner at Forbes, said: “These well-deserved appointments underline the strength in depth which we have at Forbes and our track record for nurturing talent and helping people to build careers with us. “The fact that all four promotions involve women underlines our commitment to equality and diversity and brings the total of women Partners in the firm to over 40%.” Shirley Wignall, based in Blackburn, is a solicitor
in the family law department with over 20 years’ experience having qualified as a solicitor in 1996, her particular area of expertise being children law. She has been a member of the Law Society Children Panel since 2002, and represents children and adults in court proceedings, including cases involving social services. Gill Carr, also based in Blackburn, has worked in family law since 1996 and holds Law Society accreditation for the Family Law and Children Panel. She is a committee member of Resolution, the national organisation of family lawyers, and is Regional Press Officer for Lancashire & Cumbria region.
She specialises in matters relating to families who are involved with children’s services, which includes representing parents, children and family members in meetings and also in proceedings issued before the court. Jenny Burke, based in Forbes Central Lancashire office, works in the Corporate team and assists business clients of all sizes from a range of sectors with work varying from assisting with new business start-ups to working on mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructures and re-organisations and drafting partnership and shareholders agreements. She acts for a wide range of clients including owner managed businesses, banks and financial institutions, shareholders, investors and management teams. Amy Stirton is part of the Housing & Regeneration team and is based in Chorley. She represents Local Authorities and social landlords in relation to all aspects of housing management work, but deals predominantly with cases involving antisocial behaviour, breach of tenancy and hoarding.