Plus Dane sent a text message to their tenants regarding some Kickstart opportunities. Rohey responded to the message for further details about jobs, she then registered with Liverpool in Work in April 2021 over the phone with Lisa.

Rohey discussed with her advisor Lisa that she was interested in Nursing in the future and they discussed Care work being a short term goal to give her experience of working in Social Care.  She would then be able to get lots of training behind her too, so she can then move on to further education and be working at the same time to support herself.

Rohey was referred for a virtual career ‘in care’ event where she met some employers and got lots of information about the roles available. She was then referred for the Care routeway course and was offered a place.  The course runs for 8 weeks and covers all of the mandatory training such as, dementia awareness, moving and handling, administration of medication, disabilities awareness and many more.  Completion of this course would enable her to be qualified at NCFE Level 1 standard.

As we have still been in lockdown and businesses have been running on limited resources, the course was to be delivered virtually. The training provider (Liverpool Social Partnerships) asked if Rohey has a Tablet, Laptop or PC at home to enable her to complete the course. Unfortunately she only had her phone she could work from. We discussed this being a barrier for her to move on and complete the training and Lisa contacted Sian from Plus Dane who was able to secure a tablet for Rohey to have to enable her to complete the training. This meant that she could start the course immediately.

She completed the course and enjoyed it. There were some interviews set up with potential employers as she had completed the course and employers value the fact that the mandatory training is recently completed.

Rohey had some interviews and was not successful to begin with. This was her first time completing interviews virtually and she was making a career change from retail into care.  We set up an appointment for her to complete a session based around interview techniques through the Adult Learning services and she felt that this helped her and it was only a short 2 hour session.

Rohey went on to gain more interviews and was offered some part time agency work to build upon her experience. She was then offered a full-time contract with another company and she started work with them in July 2021.  Rohey enrolled with a college in September and is currently studying for an access to higher education.

As she is already committed to full time employment and part time education, Rohey has realized that the travelling she is doing to work each day can be up to 2 hours so she contacted me again in January to ask for support to find alternative employment, something which will lessen her travel time each day. I referred her to our care business team member and she has forwarded Rohey’s CV to suitable employers matching what she is looking for.  She has now been offered employment with a local care provider who is five bus stops away from her house. This will giver her back some much needed time each day that she can use on her studies.

Rohey will now start her new job in April 2022 and has also been accepted into university to start her Nursing training in September. She will defer this for one year so she can be embedded into her new job role and gain some more suitable experience to support herself.

Although times have been hard throughout lockdown for people finding employment and employers too. Rohey’s dedication to move forward and find employment has paid off for her.  She stepped out of her comfort zone by attending virtual events and meetings and has come such a long way in the space of 12 months.