Work-ready and confident: thriving interns in Newcastle
Luke Fleming: how my internship is helping my confidence
After a three-week induction, I’m really settling in to my time at Home Group. I’m currently in the financial reporting team but will move on to a second placement in a few weeks.
As a massive Newcastle United fan, I’ve been near here so many times: little did I know that I would begin my working career over the road!
I’ve had to work hard to adjust and learn, but I’m so proud that I’m a part of the team. It’s been noticed that I’ve been completing my work really quickly.
This tells me that one day I could hold down a permanent job and be an important part of that team too.
This internship is helping me expand my skills and confidence in the workplace, and is setting me up for a good working life. I’ll finish in July, but after that I could either apply to jobs here or Sophie can help me plan my next step towards a permanent job.
Sophie Burns, Job Coach: how our internships work
I am currently supporting a cohort of five interns. They are employed by Home Group in a programme organised by DFN Project Search.
Each intern will have two placements within Home Group, a housing association. United Response’s role is to develop employability skills and smooth the transition into working life, but also to work with the employer to increase awareness of disabilities and reasonable adjustments.
Working with Alison, the educational tutor, I tailor support to each individual. Most of the barriers that we work to overcome are related to confidence and even though its early days, it’s a real joy to see people develop. Many find engaging in a professional environment challenging – this can range from finding it hard to speak-up to talking too much!
I know what a brilliant opportunity this is for each member of the current cohort.
It really makes me wonder how else they would be making their first steps into a career.
Whether or not they continue to work at Home Group beyond the placement, I’m determined that they leave work-ready and feeling confident to apply to opportunities that are matched to their skills and interests.
Oscar Warwick: my procurement work experience
This is such a big opportunity for me. I had some experience with retail and café work at college, but my long-term goal is to have a job in programming, so I’m super grateful to have this experience of working in an office role.
My sister works for Home Group so when the opportunity came up all my family encouraged me to go for it, as they knew it would be a really supportive workplace for my autism.
We have a space in the Home Group building where we work on employability skills with Alison. Then I head off to work in the procurement team for most of the day. My favourite task has been categorising feedback from customers using Excel, which has really helped the team.
Probably the biggest gamechanger for me was working with Sophie on using different memory strategies. I like to use digital tools, so Sophie helped me work on a system that I can refer back to if I need it.
It’s really important to me that I’m independent in life, whether that be where I live, paying my way or making a career.
This placement means the world to me, and I’ll give it my best shot.
Could you set up an internship for someone we support? Find out how.
- James Bishop is Communications and Marketing Manager for United Response