‘I had 50 rejections before finding work’

Former teacher Janet Beno endured 50 rejections before finally finding a job and says she is “not alone” in struggling to find work.

Slough, where she lives, currently has more out-of-work benefits claims than any other borough in Berkshire, with a total of 6,855 people.

The borough is also ranked the sixth highest for unemployment benefit claimants out of the UK’s 63 largest urban areas, according to Centre for Cities.

Slough Borough Council leader Dexter Smith said the authority was taking part in a government-funded project called Get Berkshire Working.

Ms Beno moved to the UK with her two children to reunite with her husband.

She was a primary school teacher in India, but said she never predicted how difficult it would be to find a job.

After a six-month search Ms Beno said her confidence was at its lowest, before she attended a workshop run by local charity Viva Slough.

She said it gave her confidence a boost, and helped her realise: “I am not alone, there’s people like me.”

“Most people there were like me, who took a break from their career, who were at home due to personal reasons,” she said.

After getting guidance with her applications, national insurance number and background checks, Ms Beno has now secured a job at a nursery, which starts in September.

Mobeen Anwar is the lead instructor at Viva Slough’s employment workshop, and said she had seen many people in the same position.

The free workshop lasts for three months and focuses on confidence building, guidance on CVs and covering letter-writing, and also invites hiring managers from neighbouring companies to do mock interviewees on the trainees.

She said: “When they start job searching they are like ‘I will do anything’ so I help them find what they are actually looking for.

“I help them narrow it down to what sector they want to work in.”

Chief executive of the Institute for Employment Studies Naomi Clayton said many places had struggled to recover from a rise in unemployment during the pandemic.

“We have seen quite a significant drop in Slough in the number of payrolled employees over the last few months,” she said.

She said the labour market nationally had been “cooling” in the last couple of months, with low paying sectors like hospitality seeing “substantial falls” in payrolled employees.

Mr Smith said Get Berkshire Working was aimed at getting economically inactive people into work and making sure “they get the training to be able to cope in employment”.

“A percentage of our population English is not their first language so there may be some basic skills difficulties,” he said.

He added that the council wanted to help “create pathways for employment” and would aim to support both employees and employers “to maintain their employment in the future”.