{"id":771883,"date":"2026-02-18T05:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/771883\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T05:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:05:25","slug":"free-career-classes-helping-fight-ageism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/771883\/","title":{"rendered":"Free career classes helping fight ageism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A South West London charity offers free career support programmes, helping those over 40 return to work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Room for Work offers a 12-session course covering key issues for job hunters including networking, public speaking and CV skills.<\/p>\n

Robin Bell founded the company in 2012 after being made redundant and struggling to find a new job.<\/p>\n

Bell, who is also Room for Work\u2019s programme leader, said: \u201cI had to go out looking for a job and I wasn\u2019t very good at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed some support and I couldn\u2019t find anything locally in Richmond, or in fact in London, that I didn\u2019t have to pay for \u2013 and pay quite a bit for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The free course offered by Room for Work, is solely targeted at over 40s, and aims to combat the ageism faced by older workers.<\/p>\n

Ageism, also known as age discrimination, refers to discrimination or prejudice based on a person\u2019s age, for example in the workplace.<\/p>\n

In the UK, ageism is one of the most normalised and least scrutinised forms of discrimination.<\/p>\n

According to the Centre for Ageing Better, more than a third of 50 to 69 year olds feel at a disadvantage applying for jobs due to their age.<\/p>\n

Bell said that the average age within the group is approximately 50 years old, encompassing a wide age range from individuals in their 40s to those in their 70s.<\/p>\n

Graphic designer Sarah Kellaghan, who had been out of work for a year, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a lifestage and gradually I found that a lot of my contacts in the industry, who might have been able to see me back into a full time position have been falling by the wayside because my industry is very much a young person\u2019s industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Room for Work, I was thinking maybe I should be looking at jobs outside my sector, because I\u2019m not going to be hired anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I feel completely different about that and I\u2019m thinking, I\u2019m going to upskill and I\u2019m going to keep on going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final class is an immersive interview workshop, where a volunteer participates in a live interview in front of their peers.<\/p>\n

Kellaghan took part in a course last year and says it significantly boosted her confidence, leading to further career success.<\/p>\n

Kellaghan said: \u201cOne of the things from the sessions that really stood out for me was analysing my skill set, because I think my confidence was pretty low.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so shy to stand up in front of the class and talk but by the end of the course, just before Christmas, I was actually the interview candidate which I never would have imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was there supporting and I feel that if I can do that, I can do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I\u2019ve got two projects this year already because I\u2019ve reached out and contacted people that I perhaps didn\u2019t have the confidence to do before I started the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as developing practical skills, participants feel a strong sense of community with everyone motivating and supporting each other.<\/p>\n

When asked about the social benefit of taking part in the course, Bell said: \u201cThat\u2019s a real levelling factor for people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all the same in the class because they\u2019re unemployed and they help each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe social aspect of what we do I believe has as much value as the content, and the content is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Room for Work courses are now delivered at five locations, serving residents across four London boroughs.<\/p>\n

For more information about Room for Work courses, see https:\/\/roomforwork.org\/programme\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Image Credit \u2013 Robin\u00a0McKay Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South West London charity offers free career support programmes, helping those over 40 return to work. Room…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[104943,748,29,12450,160412,393,4884,3462,257,12,26460,16,15,596],"class_list":["post-771883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-ageism","tag-britain","tag-career","tag-charity","tag-classes","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-local","tag-london","tag-news","tag-richmond","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-work"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116089896032035309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}