This summer, we jumped at the opportunity to employ a Skills Launchpad Receptionist to help us through this busy time of year. Isaac spent ten weeks with us, and was kind enough to write his reflections on his summer job and let us share his experiences.
Here's what he had to say.
"My role at Skills Launchpad Plymouth was my first proper paid employment. As first steps into the world of work, it was an invaluable experience.
The role itself was varied and interesting, and on reflection, I have learned such a lot and developed skills that will be essential to me in the future. This opportunity has given me an excellent grounding in terms of understanding what is needed to be successful in the workplace.
Working with Skills Launchpad Plymouth has been a really enjoyable experience. I was well supported throughout and provided with comprehensive training, which equipped me for the role and gave me a solid foundation from which to work. My assigned tasks were fun, interactive and I was able to use my own innate skills and talents to make independent contribution to the role.
A key responsibility centred on developing good customer service skills. This taught me that my customers were not just Skills Launchpad Plymouth clients, but also extended to my colleagues and other service providers I worked with.
Learning to communicate effectively and respond to the needs of others face-to-face, has been an interesting personal development and a skill I will take with me. I was initially very daunted by this; however, the team helped me to develop some simple professional scripts to use when meeting, greeting and engaging with clients. For example, when trying to gain a client’s attention, welcoming them to the space, using a standard greeting of “Hello, how can I help?” was useful. When guiding clients to respective appointments, ensuring their comfort was important, therefore the phrase “Please take a seat and one of the team will be with you in just a moment” supported this and ensured clients knew what was happening next. Such example scripts were easy to learn and use, and made clients feel comfortable, as they knew I was on hand to help. This process worked well and my communication with clients developed more naturally as I became increasingly confident. This customer service aspect of my role also performed the important function of providing the necessary space between client and the Coordinators, which enabled Skills Launchpad to run smoothly, filtering the client throughput and giving them the best impression of the organisation and staff.
My role also gave me the opportunity to expand my digital and technical knowledge. In addition to the client-facing element of the role, I was also able to help improve the Skills Launchpad Plymouth website, by reviewing it as a young person looking for information and trying out its external resources. This was really interesting work. In particular, analyses of the Youth Hub resource bank and the quizzes were helpful in highlighting ways to improve the usability of this service to young people. This was particularly rewarding as being a young person transitioning from education to employment, I know how overwhelming it can be to navigate such processes. Being able to use my youth perspective to make improvements for other young people was a really positive experience.
My time working for Skills Launchpad Plymouth has given me everything I need to step confidently into the world of employment and would be a valuable experience for any young person on a similar path. The variety of skills I have had a chance to develop and the support I have received has equipped me for my next steps. Therefore, I have to say, Skills Launchpad Plymouth really lives up to its name!"
We've had a blast this summer, and wish Isaac every success as he returns to university this month.
(Isaac is camera shy, the Team Launchpad are not)
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