New Year, a New You?

Posted by lisa young wrexham from Wrexham - Published on 07/02/2013 at 13:51
1 comments » - Tagged as Education, People, Topical, Work & Training

When I was in school I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to do, I had lost my mum at 14 and lost my way with school work, so I knew university wasn’t for me as I would never have got the grades.

School was a weird time for me and I didn’t enjoy the first three years. I had lost some of my friends I had gone there with from junior school and found myself keeping my head down and getting on with school work. I enjoyed the fourth and fifth years, making some great friends and enjoyed going to school (to see them not do my school work). Life at home was difficult my mum was ill with lung cancer, my dad was worried and was trying to keep his job and run the farm shop we had at the time, as my mum was too ill. As a teenager it was easier for me to stay out with my mates than go home and deal with everything that was happening there. In my last year of school my mum died and at the time it was too much for my dad to handle and I got thrown out of the house. I moved out of the area with the boyfriend I had at the time and missed about four months of school.

Lots of horrible things happened during the four months but as this is an article about training and work I will leave the details of what happened for another time. Thankfully I made up with my dad, moved home and I went back into school to finish my final year. After missing so much of school I didn’t do too well with my GCSE’s. After finishing school I went onto college to re-sit some of my exams. Actually I have a friend who has gone back to college now to re-sit her GCSE’s, we left school 16 years ago, so it’s never too late! At college which I must say I had a brilliant time in, I made more new friends and had a great social life. I did have some pressure off my dad to get a job but I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I tried all different jobs; accounts assistant, admin worker and holiday rep to name but a few.

I felt that I still needed to develop my training and experience, so I went on some training at Wrexham Itec. Here I completed a NVQ 2, City and Guilds and RSA 1 & 2 and this also kept my dad off my back. These qualifications opened a lot of doors for me and I was able to apply for jobs as an admin worker. I then got a job which developed me further and gave me more experience for my CV; this meant I could start applying for other jobs. Mind you I didn’t need any qualifications to become a holiday rep I just needed some time out and being away from friends and family encouraged me to grow up and stand on my own to feet.

When I came back from being abroad I had a few different jobs but then I got a job working as a support worker supporting adults with learning disabilities in work and out in the community. I absolutely loved the job, the team I worked with were great and in this job I did more training and qualifications. I was prepared to do anything that would help me develop in that role. I didn’t mind what job I did but once I was in a job, I did as much training and qualifications as I could to help me develop in the role and build up my CV. It was whilst I was in this post that I looked into training as a youth worker. With some of the things I had gone through as a young person I thought I would be able to help other young people. I contacted Wrexham Youth Service and managed to get on a training course called ‘Introduction to Youth Work’. There where about 28 people on the course that day and we looked at what kind of person it took to be a youth worker and why the youth service does what it does. This course is still running today. From this course I got a job in two youth clubs in Wrexham and carried on with my training with Wrexham Youth Service. It was 7 years ago that I went on this course.

So where am I now?

I now work full time for the youth service and I have just finished the second year of my degree; I finally made it to university. Ok I didn’t take the normal route to university and I have had a few different jobs along the way but I have finally found something I enjoy doing. I thought that when I finished college that I had enough of learning, but as I have got older I enjoy learning and developing my skills.

Life throws different things at us that may lead us down different paths; my Gran thinks it’s ironic that I am a youth worker as I wasn’t the angelic teenager she had hoped for. I am waiting for the results of my last essay and I can’t explain how great I feel that I have got this far.

Work is great I have made some great friends and colleagues and enjoy getting up in the morning for work; I have also met lots of fantastic young people.

Even though we are in tough times, keep working hard and trying for jobs. There are lots of people who can help you if you are unsure about how to get into work or training. If you need help building a CV or just some general advice and support why not call into the INFO Shop and see if the youth workers there can help you.

You can contact us on:

Telephone: 01978 358900

Email: infoshop@wrexham.gov.uk

Facebook: Young Wrexham