Talented baker, Sandra, has a dream to open a café in South Wales. But with no formal qualifications, and being unemployed with a family to support, she considered it to be nothing more than a pipedream. Sandra’s Job Coach is determined to help her achieve her dream and to do this, Sandra needs some formal qualifications to support her CV.
Darren was candid with his Job Coach when he joined the Restart Scheme. Depression, alcoholism, mounting debt, and a terminally ill father seemed all-encompassing. Given the breadth of his barriers, his Job Coach decided a whole team approach underpinning his pre-employability work was appropriate. Every member of the team was involved to provide holistic support.
Due to dependency, Dave* was unable to attend meetings with his Job Coach, Sam, ultimately leading to mandation to attend. But Sam was determined for this to not set the tone for their future meetings. He worked hard to create a neutral, non-judgemental environment where Dave could feel safe to openly share about his struggles and explore suitable work that met his needs.
The digital skills gap is prevalent across West Central England where Serco delivers the Restart Scheme. As the Deputy Principal of The Recovery College explains, “Feeling inadequate or under-skilled when everything in our lives today is on a digital platform can be devastating for an individual’s wellbeing.”