mySalvos

Cody Dobbs (right) is congratulated by a work colleague after becoming one of the successful participants in the Queensland Times and Employment Plus 50 Jobs for 50 People campaign.(Photo courtesy of Queensland Times)

Employment Plus Ipswich recently partnered with the Queensland Times to help locals find employment through its “50 Jobs for 50 People” campaign. 
 
Every day over four weeks, the Queensland Times, which has roughly 35,000 readers, ran photos and short biographies of two job-ready candidates. Overall, 50 job seekers were profiled.  
 
Each biography contained an outline of the candidate’s work history, their personal attributes and the type of job they were looking for.  
 
The newspaper furthered its support for the campaign by including a banner on its front page, an editorial about the campaign and stories of successful placements.  
 
“The campaign was an out-of-the-box way to promote our local job seekers,” said Naomi Duff, Employment Plus Site Team Manager in Goodna.  
 
“I think it went really well and it worked on a number of levels. It certainly got people into jobs, it’s produced a large number of leads, which we are still following up, and it has raised the profile of Employment Plus enormously, which will provide additional dividends in the future.”  
 
It’s estimated that once all employment leads have been chased, the campaign will see some 20 people employed.  
 
“All the job candidates really appreciated being involved because it was a great way to progress their job search,” said Naomi.  
 
Cody Dodds is already an example of this. After spending two years looking for work, the 17-year-old recently found employment through the 50 Jobs campaign with Cedar Sales.  
The Ipswich Mayor’s office even got involved by passing along a job seeker enquiry after reading about the campaign in the newspaper.  
 
“The Queensland Times deserves a lot of praise,” said Naomi. “Ipswich has a serious unemployment problem and the paper wanted to do something positive to help the local community.”  
 
The Employment Plus sites in Ipswich and Goodna continue to do their bit to tackle the issue, having found employment for about 80 local job seekers in July.