Abbey, 22, was first told about Skills Launchpad Plymouth when she was working with a Pathfinder Keyworker to defer a charge.
She first engaged with the service when attending a Find Your Future session with a support worker. These sessions offer a weekly drop-in opportunity for care experienced young people to join a Barnardos representative and a member of the Skills Launchpad Plymouth team for a chat and some tea, coffee and cake, whilst also finding out about opportunities for skills, training, education, careers and jobs.
The skills assessment identified that Abbey was interested in business admin and retail roles and that she needed to tweak her CV for the different positions. It was also agreed, that the first priority, was Abbey joining a Devon Mind anxiety workshop online to check she had the tools to move forward into employment.
Abbey did attend and this activity provided her with the boost she needed to move forward with applying for jobs, taking on board all of the advice provided. Jo supported Abbey in updating her CV, and gave her confidence in her existing transferable skills, encouraging her to move forward with her goal of gaining employment.
Abbey soon got a job working evening shifts at Tesco, and is now planning ahead for her next opportunity when her contract is reviewed later this month.
Abbey said: “Even though I’m now working, I still receive regular updates on various opportunities from the Youth Hub, including Apprenticeship Bulletins with Plymouth vacancies. Jo checks in every couple of months to see how things are going. I’ve found Skills Launchpad Plymouth to be friendly, encouraging and caring, I would be happy to recommend them and know I can get in touch for advice when I need it.”
If you are aged 16-24 and think you would benefit from 1:1 support through the Youth Hub, please sign up here and our Coordinator will be in touch.
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