Building Better Opportunities- Our Case Studies
The Coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment numbers to rise after businesses are urged to close or change the way they operate. At Groundwork Greater Nottingham we’ve had to adapt as career advisors and offer a lot more welfare support to our clients. Although the people we helped felt discouraged by the impact of Covid-19, we have managed to support everyone to remain motivated and confident. Below, we are sharing some of our amazing stories and hope to spread positivity among those people who need help to get into work.
Case study 1- Providing a diverse range of opportunities for people accessing our service
BBO participant- Case Study1
My participant was passionate about wanting a career working with the elderly. She has dyslexia and struggled to complete application forms. We provided her with a pack of coloured overlays to assist her with her reading, and it made a huge difference. We tailored her CV towards the care sector and myself and the Job Broker assisted her with applications and job searching. The interview offers started to come through and she has now secured a position in a local care home. She has been on previous programmes, and said that no one has listened or helped her peruse a job in her chosen sector before.
Case study 2- Adopting a holistic approach to tackle emerging difficulties
My participant had been relocated to a new area and was very isolated. We attended her heath assessment to get her on the correct benefit and supported her with an application for council tax reduction. We registered her with a local GP to resume her medication and sourced a mental health provider. We then focused on her chosen career, creating a CV, interview preparation and any required training. The job broker found the perfect position and we are in the process of providing her with the necessary IT equipment to enable her to start work. I told her how proud I was of her and she started crying, and said “No one has ever said that to me before”.
Case Study 3- Gaining employment through a personalised service
My participant started on the programme economically inactive not claiming any benefits, sofa surfing, suffering and identified as having anxiety, depression, low confidence and not having any career goal. Firstly, supported with making both a claim to housing through Nottingham city council and a claim to universal credits, supported in attending the job centre appointments as they found this environment daunting, and supported them in registering with the doctor and attending appointments with them as they weren’t comfortable attending on their own. We have monitored the progress at every one – to – one, to discuss how they are feeling and managing after working through the barriers surrounding their circumstances we then completed transferable skills sessions to identify a career goal this included looking at their hobbies interest and previous experience and also identified training that was required to work in a gym, supported them with funding through BBO to start the level two gym instructors course and then went on to work on employability skills including – CV writing, job searching, applying for jobs and preparing for interviews. Completed Better off in work calculations to identify suitable working hours and supported them in starting work as a receptionist in a local gym, and kept in regular contact to ensure they have sustained in employment and managing their study time for the level 2 gym instructor qualification. The outcome is employment – improved confidence and ability to manage their mental health.
If you are unemployed and would like to access our services click here to find out how you can contact us.
