As part of our commitment to our customers, 100% of all profits generated by The Compliance People are gift-aided to our parent charity, Newground Together. Every month, we like to take a moment to show how your support has helped others.
This month we take a look at how the “More Positive Together Steps” program put together by our parent charity has given people the skills to enter the workplace.
In February 2022, Blackburn resident Favour received a text about an education course that Newground Together was delivering. The More Positive Together course was created to offer residents in some of the most deprived areas the chance to improve their skills and employment prospects.
Favour, who has three children, had recently started volunteering for Refugee and Asylum seekers organisations, one of which was DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprises). Favour became passionate about helping people with mental health problems and was involved in various voluntary activities to support vulnerable groups. She also went on to study at Blackburn College for her English, Maths and ICT.
After finishing the More Positive Together course, Favour met with Newground Together Senior Employability advisor Zainab to update her CV and add the five education qualifications she had just acquired. Favour was nervous but very excited about the opportunities this gave her as she was keen to pursue a career in education.
Favour was keen to get started, and with support from Newground Together, she immediately applied for various roles in schools across Blackburn.
Favour very quickly received responses from the applications she had made and, at one point, received three interviews in one week!
Having cared for her own children, Favour had never attended a job interview. To help prepare Favour and ease any nerves, Zainab from Newground Together hosted some mock interviews. This process massively eased Favours nerves. She performed brilliantly at the interviews and was offered three jobs!
Favour swiftly accepted two of these jobs, one as a welfare assistant post in a school and another as a play worker at Blackburn Youth Zone.
Favour said, “Without the education course, application support and interview preparation, I believe I would not have secured employment.”
When asked what difference this has made to her life she said, “It will make all the difference as my confidence and my wellbeing has improved so much and I now know that I can achieve anything I want and more! Above all else my children are so proud of me and that gives me hope for them and the future.”