PEOPLE in Taunton celebrated the UK Employability Day at Prospects.

The day took place yesterday (April 15) and highlighted the work of organisations which help jobseekers to move towards or into work.

Coordinated by the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the day was celebrated by employment support providers up and down the UK, such as local provider Prospects, who provide the Work Programme helping people who are long term unemployed across the South West.

Celebrations kicked off in Taunton with the announcement of three people gaining jobs before 9.30am.

Employers joined the celebration, and staff were able to showcase the work they do to support job seekers in to work.

One of the activities which took place was a group session creating vision boards.

A vision board is a collage of images and headlines that represents goals and dreams. Each board reflects the creator’s personality, interests, likes and desires.

Loretta Brown, who runs the vision board session is keen to share the benefits of this inspirational activity.

She said: “It is so rare we give ourselves permission to be creative or take the time to absorb ourselves in a single and enjoyable task.”

After each board is created the group explain them to the group.

This is a challenging activity for people who have low confidence and self esteem.

One group member, Sam, said: “Before I came along this morning I didn’t think this sort of thing would help, but it really did.”

Sam’s board reflected her goals of making her little girl proud, creating a retirement fund and beating depression.

Loretta ended the session by reminding everyone how they could achieve their goals.