A job club at Jesmond Library is hoping to attract more people seeking work after just three people attended its first meeting in August.

The club was established by former HR manager Belinda Brady, who has experience in recruitment and offers advice on job applications and finding employment. Brady said the club can be “whatever people want it to be”, with the possibility of guest speakers, visits to employers and goal-setting between sessions.

The next meeting is scheduled for this Saturday, November 14th, with further sessions planned for December 19th and January 23rd. Brady said she hopes attendance will “build up” as more people become aware of the service.

Although Jesmond is not often associated with high unemployment, Brady said the library is a good location because it is a warm, free space that is accessible by Metro to people living elsewhere in Newcastle.

The club is open to people from across the city, rather than targeting a particular age group or employment background. Its first session attracted a young graduate, a woman hoping to re-enter the workplace and a self-employed artist. Brady said she hopes the club will provide motivation, encouragement and support to people looking for work.

Newcastle University student Elliot Clark welcomed the idea. “I would love for there to be a service like this as there are not many in the area that I know of,” he said.

Clark said the club could be “beneficial, especially for young people and students at the moment as it is getting increasingly tricky to find work placements and jobs.” However, he said he would prefer an online service and would only attend an in-person session if he knew someone else going.

Another Newcastle University student, Alex Conroy-Gent, said the club could be “useful to those who haven’t had any employment advice before”. But he questioned whether Jesmond was the right location, arguing that the area was “funded by rich students from the south” and that the service was therefore unnecessary locally. Conroy-Gent said he would not use the club himself because he believed the “information is mostly reused”.

The club has been established against a backdrop of unemployment in Newcastle which is currently 4.8%, compared with a national rate of 4.4%, according to government figures collated by statistics website Plumplot.

The job club’s meeting this weekend on Saturday, November 14th, is scheduled to run from 10.30am to 12.30pm at Jesmond Library.