Get Oldham Working news

Oldham residents who struggle to get online will soon have a new lifeline after the council's Get Oldham Working team landed £266,084 to run a programme called GOW Digital. The money, drawn from the national Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, is earmarked for kit, training and one-to-one support in neighbourhoods where households are least likely to own a device or have broadband.

The grant arrives only two months after the same service was named best in Britain for tailored employment help at the 2025 ERSA Employability Awards. Judges singled out the way advisers weave together childcare support, skills courses and employer introductions rather than simply signing people up for job searches.

Council leader Arooj Shah saw that approach first-hand during a June visit when she watched staff coach residents through CV clinics and mock interviews. She later told aides the sessions felt more like a community centre than a job centre, with people dropping in for coffee and staying for training.

One group that has already felt the benefit is the 24 residents who graduated last spring from an eight-week NHS preparation course run with the trust's HR team. After lessons on patient confidentiality and ward routines, 18 walked straight into band-2 care roles at Royal Oldham and Fairfield, starting on £22,383 a year.

Younger locals got their own boost in September when more than 300 teenagers filed into Queen Elizabeth Hall for the annual Oldham Careers Fair. Organisers say every school in the borough sent pupils, and 92 per cent told surveyors they had spoken to an employer they had never considered before.