The UK’s first not-for-profit recruitment agency has begun trading.
It has been launched by the clothing manufacturers’ trade union Community and will be run by the union’s wholly owned subsidiary training arm, Knowledge Skills Partnership.
The agency will not focus on any particular sector and hopes to attract employers by a programme of social inclusion where profit will be invested into Knowledge Skills Partnership to train more people.
It will operate from 15 centres across the UK and will offer employers a service to advise and assist them when taking on someone with a disability.
It will also offer an income protection plan so that if someone placed by the agency falls sick Knowledge Skills Partnership will pay them, for up to four weeks, the difference between statutory sick pay and what they earn at work.
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If an employer continues to pay them full pay then the employer will receive the money Knowledge Skills Partnership is making available.
Chief executive of the agency, Victoria Shaw, said employers would gain from transparent, competitive fees that the company’s not-for-profit stand makes possible and the opportunity to be part of a programme of social inclusion.
