Success stories
Back to school for Terry – but this time he’s loving every minute of it!
Terry had worked as a machine operator for eight years after leaving school, and then for the following ten years, up to 2003, he been in warehouse work.
Terry had an accident in 1998 and damaged his back. He was off sick for a year and was finally diagnosed with curvature of the spine. His doctor told him that he mustn’t do any heavy lifting or work in a cold store any more, so he had to leave his job at the Co-op. He signed on at the Jobcentre and was referred to the Disability Employment Adviser. She supported his application to the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation Training College for the Building and Property Maintenance course. Terry had always been interested in DIY (he’d re-furbished a house himself) and a career in either plumbing or electrical work appealed to him, so the course was very appropriate as he’d be able to learn the basics in both trades.
The College accepted Terry’s application, and he was put on the waiting list. The course was so popular it was months before he could start, but he was prepared to wait as he felt it would be worth it in the end. He finally started the course in May 2005, and managed to complete his actual training in only five months because of his previous experience. He then spent a few weeks helping round the College with a variety of maintenance jobs to gain even more skills. Terry said, “My time at the College was a worthwhile experience. I enjoyed it! I made new friends there, one of whom I still keep in touch with.”
Then it was time for Terry to do a work placement with an outside employer. With the help of his Employment Development Manager at the College, Mike Wilson, he secured a placement at the Rainham Mark Grammar School in Kent, quite near to where he lives. The school said it was the first time they’d tried something like that, and they were very pleased with the arrangements. They said that they liked Terry’s attitude to work and that he was reliable, enthusiastic and worked well with the others in the team. Unfortunately, they had no actual job to offer him at the time, and Terry was quite disappointed as he enjoyed his time there and did gain a lot of benefit from the work experience and the variety of work.
So, Terry was back to the Jobcentre, signing on again, but after only a few weeks the school rang him to say a vacancy for an Assistant Site Manager had now come up! He had effectively already served a trial period when he was on his work placement there, so they had no hesitation in offering him the job straight away. Terry was pretty much thrown in at the deep end! Although he had a month’s handover from his predecessor, almost immediately after that his boss was off for several weeks and he was on his own. It was a steep learning curve for him, dealing with contractors and many staff at the school. He said it didn’t bother him though, he just got on with things.
Terry is now well established in his job. He’s responsible for locking-up the whole site every day, which can involve closing up to 642 windows, turning off all the lights and shutting down lots of computers.
He is also responsible for liaising with the cleaning supervisor if there are any issues or problems there, testing the fire alarms regularly, patrolling the site after dark, litter picking and he does a variety of maintenance tasks around the site. Terry said, “ I thoroughly enjoy it and I get on well with lots of the staff. I can work at my own pace, but then if an emergency comes up I have to act quickly. The skills that I learnt at the College help me in the job now”.
