Ian's Story

Ian was referred to the Employability and Skills service by DWP after being made redundant from his job as a metal salvage worker. He was unsure what to do next and where to begin as job hunting and attending interviews was something new.

Ian is also a single parent with two teenage children after he lost his wife to a short illness, so working around childcare was also an issue.

At the beginning Ian didn’t engage but once we had completed the paperwork and chatted about what his concerns were he was happy to get involved and understood that the service was there to offer guidance and support.

Ian is a “Grafter” and wants to work; he always felt in control of everything in his life, but now his circumstances had significantly changed and it had unsettled him.

We looked at various options and spoke about what he had a passion for. From his experience with the hospital, supporting his late wife, he wanted to pursue his dream of working within the NHS.

During our sessions we applied for various positions and Ian secured an interview for the position of Crematorium Technician. I arranged for Ian to go through a mock interview which he found very useful. He was asked back for a second interview and asked to prepare a presentation. This helped his motivation and he was short listed down to the last 3. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful, but the feedback was good, which encouraged him to keep trying to find employment.

“Very Good service, it has helped me to build my confidence immensely.”

Ian attended an information session from the NHS that we organised in our offices. The session was to help individuals with their job applications and included a question and answer session. It was well attended and Ian got a lot from it and was keen to apply for any vacancies they had coming up. He monitored their job site regularly and contacted me as and when to support him with applications.

A position for Casual Building Services with Dumfries and Galloway Council was advertised. He was unsuccessful at securing that position but impressed the interviewer and was offered a different position as a casual cleaner and began to get regular hours cleaning at a local high school.

He was still keen to pursue a career with the NHS and continued to monitor the vacancies on their site. Eventually he saw a vacancy that he was interested in and contacted me to look over his application. The interview did not go as well as he would have liked, but the NHS information session had really helped to prepare him and he was very pleasantly surprised when he received a call offering him a 20 hour contract.

Ian now has two jobs that are helping him to again be self-sufficient and provide for his family. Ian found our service to be a “very Good service, it has helped me to build my confidence immensely. Being allocated the right support coach has helped me to overcome my anxiety and feel comfortable to discuss issues and achieve my goal of gaining employment with the NHS”