It’s the Sector Route-way to success! Women who came to The Source on a marketing course for the jobless ended up joining the team

Award-winning Sheffield training and skills academy The Source has expanded its marketing expertise with two new executives – thanks to a training programme it runs for unemployed people across South Yorkshire.

The talents of Chetna Raniga-Jogia, now business development executive and marketing lead, and Tetiana Karpenko, marketing and learners’ engagement executive, were spotted while they were at The Source on a Sector Routeways bootcamp in digital marketing and business admin, which the academy runs with Opportunity Sheffield, the City Council’s employment and skills service.

Both women were signposted to the course by their Job Centre advisors.

They were unemployed and had strong marketing skills, but had not worked in the UK sector and needed help to break into it in Sheffield, where they had made their home.

Tetiana, 23, came to the city in November 2022 to escape the war in her native Ukraine. She grew up in Kharkiv and was working as a brand manager, producing content, photography and social media for six niche fashion labels when war broke out.

She had to flee her city and came to Sheffield under the Homes For Ukraine Scheme.

Chetna, who moved to Sheffield in 2010, was a pharmacy technician with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals but left her job when the pandemic piled pressure on hospital staff.

Nairobi-born, Chetna grew up in Texas, where she gained a BA in psychology. She had become adept at marketing, social media and graphic design while running her own dance and performing arts academy in Dallas and was keen to return to marketing.

The Sector Routeways programme, part-funded by the European Social Fund, prepares unemployed people for work in a number of sectors experiencing labour shortages.

On the two-week course in February, students were tasked with presenting a marketing campaign. Ideas presented by Tetiana and Chetna impressed The Source’s deputy CEO Natalie Doherty.

Natalie commented: “Opportunity Sheffield’s Sector Routeways programme, which we are proud to deliver, is getting strong  results. It gets unemployed people upskilled and into work placements where they can prove their worth to companies experiencing skills shortages.

“In the case of Chetna and Tetiana, while they were training with us we saw they had huge potential and urged them to apply for roles with us.  They are now valued members of our marketing team.”

Chetna said: “The programme changed the direction of my life. It opened my eyes to my potential. I love my job at The Source.

“One of my tasks is to encourage people to sign up to Sector Routeways courses. I am my best example of its success!”

Tetiana is studying for a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship Level 3 with The Source until December 2024, which will give her a UK qualification.

She is bringing a fresh approach to The Source’s marketing toolkit and says: “After such a terrible year, I’m working in marketing  for an organisation which  helps people to change their lives. That’s exactly what The Source has done for me.”

A registered charity, The Source has helped transform the lives of over 10,000 people

since launching in 2003 and was named Training Provider of the Year in the 2023 South Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards.

In 2022 the organisation achieved its best-ever outcomes for apprentices and moved into the country’s top ten per cent of training providers. In addition, it received an Ofsted rating of Good, placed 197 new apprentices at 128 South Yorkshire businesses, delivered over £600k of community-based provision to support individuals into work and 100 percent of its Traineeship learners went into further training or employment.

The Source is tutoring  a number of Sector Routeways courses and the next Digital Marketing/Business Admin courses begin on August 7 and September 4. Anyone unemployed, over 18  and living in South Yorkshire can apply by contacting [email protected] [email protected]