A CRUCIAL front-line service helping people in Okehampton get back into work has secured funding to allow it to continue for another year.

The Ockment Centre’s work club has been preserved for the next 12 months thanks to funding from Okehampton United Charities.

The grant for £7,696 covers the whole cost of running the service for a year.

Ockment Centre team manager Carol Burns said: ‘We are very pleased that Okehampton United Charities are supporting us for another year. They are very good to us and to Okehampton in general. The service is as needed as ever here in Okehampton, because there is no job centre here, you have to go all the way to Exeter to sign on.’

The club provides a vital twice-weekly service for anyone who needs it to seek support to help them get online to apply for benefits and search for job vacancies.

It also plays an important social role in providing a regular meeting place for jobseekers who can share news on vacancies and encourage and support each other.

Anyone looking for work or considering a change of career can contact Geoff Mills at the work club for friendly and impartial help and advice on compiling a CV, careers information, local vacancies and learning and training opportunities, as well as free access to the internet. The centre has seven laptops which are for the dedicated use of the work club, plus job vacancies are displayed at the centre.

‘We have someone who runs the job club who can help people get online and access the Government Gateway forms,’ said Carol. ‘Geoff can help them put together CVs and we have job vacancies sent here. I have said to companies who wish to display their vacancies that we can let them have a room if they want to do interviews. They can also send their own vacancies to the job centre.’

The work club has been running every Friday since 2011, when it was set up in the wake of the huge number of redundancies in the town after the closure of Polestar, Robert Wiseman Dairies, Kerry Ingredients and Browne’s Chocolates in the space of a year.

Carol said there was still a major need for the club, which has been supported by Okehampton United Charities from the beginning.

‘It is still very much needed because there are no jobs in Okehampton and also a lot of people who have come here don’t have their own computers. A lot of has to be done online for the job centre and they may need help to get online.’

The club runs on Wednesday morning from 9.30am to 12.30pm and on Fridays from 10am to 1pm.

These sessions are part of the centre’s Friday Hub, a drop-in session run during the same hours where people can get information or support for a wide range of issues.

There are representatives from Citizen’s Advice, who can give general advice on any issue, Sanctuary Housing which helps people who are homeless or at risk of losing their home and a monthly visit from the Royal British Legion, who can support anyone who has a past or present link with the military services.

For more information on the work club visit www.ockmentcentre.org or call into the centre on North Street.