There are many places that offer career support. But Evenbreak was being told that disabled candidates weren’t receiving the careers support they needed – it wasn’t suitable or accessible for them. Either it wasn’t relevant to disabled candidates, and was perhaps delivered by careers coaches with little understanding of the disabling barriers they face. Or the provision had restrictive eligibility criteria – dependent on their post code, or their age. Or they’d be ‘too disabled’ or ‘not disabled enough’ or have the ‘wrong’ impairment. Or the support was a prescriptive programme which assumes everyone needs the same kind of support.
So, the Career Hive was developed (https://hive.evenbreak.co.uk), offering relevant and accessible careers support specifically for disabled people looking for new or better work. Developed and delivered by disabled careers professionals with lived experience of the barriers they face.
You can:
- Receive one-to-one coaching sessions from their Career Coaches
- Find support organisations near you
- Access online resources
- Search for jobs on their specialist job board (https://www.evenbreak.co.uk)
- Attend online workshops and webinars
- Find mentors from a range of sectors
- Come to ‘Meet the Employer’ events
There is no charge, and no complicated eligibility criteria – if you are disabled and would like support in your job search, they are there for you. You may just want some advice on your CV, or some interview preparation, or you may want more long-term support on confidence-building or identifying transferable skills. You’ll receive bespoke support that meets your needs in ways accessible to you.
The service was co-produced by the Evenbreak team (all of whom are disabled) and a focus group of Evenbreak candidates, as they wanted to ensure that the service met the real needs of disabled candidates. The service will be continuously improved through responding to feedback from people using the service. Other services planned for the future include offering peer support from successful candidates who can mentor and support other candidates.
To learn more about what’s on offer, and to register interest in their coaching service, it’s at https://hive.evenbreak.co.uk
