Help at hand to get a foot on job ladder Just recently, I had the pleasurable task of launching the new Sherborne Job Club.

The Club is located at the Rendezvous in Sherborne. It is a wonderful organisation that has helped young people in the town for many years, and which will now act as the base for staff members and volunteers to give people searching for jobs all sorts of useful, practical help to improve the chances of finding work of the right sort for them.

I am delighted to say that this reinforces the network of job clubs that have already been established in four West Dorset towns.

I am now intending to move on to Lyme Regis in the west and Chickerell in the east, in order to complete the network.

The latest figures continue to show West Dorset as one of the parts of the country with the lowest unemployment – now standing at only 1.2 per cent of the work force. But if you are part of that 1.2 per cent, it’s no help to be told that other people in the district are in work.

What you need is a helping hand – and that is exactly what the job clubs provide. What has struck me over and over again as we have worked to set up these job clubs in the course of the last two or three years, is the willingness of people who, in most cases, have had jobs and are now retired to lend their time and effort.

It really is true that many people who have succeeded and contributed are more than willing to go out of their way to help others do the same. You find this, of course, in all the voluntary bodies and social enterprises. The Citizens Advice Bureau are full of splendid volunteers who give their time to help people.

But lacking a job is a particularly vivid and grisly experience, and it is touching to see how concerned those who have had jobs are to provide a ladder for those who haven’t got them.