A CHAIN of Italian restaurants co-owned by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been helping long-term unemployed people return to the workforce.
Jamie’s Italian, founded by Oliver and chef Gennaro Contaldo and with restaurants across the UK, has been working with Ingeus, the Scottish provider of the UK government’s Work Programme, to provide jobs for previously unemployed people.
So far, the scheme has seen the company employ people at its restaurants in Glasgow, Edinburgh and, most recently, Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen restaurant, which opened earlier this year, recently recruited four staff who had been out of work. These include Teresa Chalmers, who was out of the workforce for over 20 years while she raised her children, and Jason McKay who had been unemployed for six years.
“It has been great to see our Ingeus recruits develop and gain confidence,” said Jamie’s Italian resourcing manager Marc Voigt.
“It is important for us to give genuine, hardworking people opportunities – then it’s down to the individual.”
Image – Teresa Chalmers and Jason McKay are getting a slice of the action in Aberdeen.
