Back to work

We often have fun thinking up clever titles for Web Treasure Hunt, but this time it’s different – this edition is called "back to work", and that’s exactly what it’s all about. People need jobs, and jobs are more difficult to find. But there are still jobs to be found, and we can help our users to find them, to apply for them, and to get advice if they need training or a brush-up of their CVs.

The new kid on the Gateway

The Gateway has had an "Education & jobs" category for a long time, and it still has. But if you click on it now, you will reach a page explaining that "Education" has been separated out and sent on it way, while "Jobs" has been beefed up and renamed "Back to work".

The new page (sub-title "we can help") has three main strands. On the main "Back to work" page there are links to sites giving or listing advice to people who are out of work, in work but fearing the worst, nearing retirement, or simply wanting a change of scene. The links include in-house sources - Marylebone Information Service’s impressive careers section, for instance, and Westminster Reference Library’s unrivalled know-how in the field of performing arts.

There are several "outside" links, and one "inside/outside" link to Paddington First, who provide excellent drop-in advice sessions at several of our libraries (and other local centres), as well as directly finding people jobs within the new businesses moving into the Paddington Basin development.

Online and on-the-page

The "Back to work" page links to two pages dealing with job ads. The first one has links to good websites, some associated with newspapers and magazines, and others freestanding. The second page features print sources. These sources are all available in at least one Westminster library, and some at every library. If you are pointing people in this direction, please reinforce the health warning at the top of the page: before somebody makes a special journey, they (or you) should check WULOP to make sure that the particular branch takes the relevant publication, and then give them a quick ring to find out whether this week’s copy is on the rack.

We can all sympathise with someone who comes into the library with a work (or lack of work) problem. But we can do a lot more than sympathise – we can make a difference.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Education & jobs", and then click on the onward link to "Back to work".)