A YOUNG mum is hoping to help lots of other working mothers have their cake - and eat it.

Vivienne Duke gave up her full time

management job when she had her first child seven years ago.

But when she wanted to return to work part time she found only low paid, undemanding jobs were available to her.

She tackled her employer and together they came up with a solution - she would have to find someone to share her job.

After a long search she did eventually find someone, but her experiences left her thinking there was a niche in the market.

And now she has launched a job share

register where people can find their ideal working partner.

Vivienne said: "I was keen to retain the managerial status I had achieved, but no longer wished to work full time.

"But I discovered the only jobs available to me were low paid and undemanding - a far cry from my previous career."

Fortunately, Vivienne had a sympathetic employer who was coming round to the idea of job-sharing - but she still had to come up with someone to share her job.

"I eventually managed to find a colleague working in a similar role in the same grade and we enjoyed six years of an extremely

successful working partnership, but finding her was a formidable task and I had to be very determined."

Vivienne, who lives in Adel with husband, Jon, and children, Ben, nearly seven, and Livia, three - both at school in Bramhope - has been amazed by the response she has had.

Equals One Recruitment, she believes, is unique outside London.

She said: "I set up the business for two

reasons - firstly I wanted to help workers who find themselves in the same situation I did six years ago, wanting to job share but not really knowing where to begin.

"I also wanted to be my own boss to allow that element of flexibility now that both my children are in education."

Now, Vivienne, who has also written a guide for job sharers, works in the morning while Livia is at playgroup.

She stops working in the afternoon and starts again once the children are in bed.

"I can end up working very late, but it's worth it," she said.

She has linked up with two other agencies in London with web sites allowing her to develop her ever growing network of people wanting to share jobs.

"The response has been amazing since I opened up the web site and I'm getting people registering pretty much every day.

"At the moment I am working hard to get employers on board with that I am doing in the hope we can work together to place job

sharers.

"It may be they have a job sharer who needs to find a partner and I have someone on my register.

"Or it may be that I match two people up from my register and place them into a full time job."

Vivienne has been happy to discover her initiative has worked well with the government's policy to help mothers back into work.

l To find out more about Equals One Recruitment, telephone Vivienne Duke on (0771) 8918287 e-mail equalsone@aol.com or visit the web site at www.equalsone.co.uk.