When I was 18, I'd never in a million years have thought I'd be standing up in front of long-term unemployed prisoners, delivering group sessions. But here I am, 20 years in and still doing it and loving it.
From 1987, I trained as a civil engineer for just under five years and I absolutely hated it. It just wasn't my cup of tea, so I came out of it.
It was the early 90s and I went on a ‘restart /job plan’ course for what was meant to be a week, and at the end of it, the manager offered me a job as a Restart Tutor delivering it with him – which is how I got into the line of work I’m in now.
You never know what new opportunities can bring…
I then moved to working in job centres and probation offices delivering Information and Guidance (IAG), and in May 2003 I moved to working for the housing associations – including ECHG / Riverside Housing.
I supported people in probation hostels as part of the EQUAL project in partnership with Employment Regeneration Partnership (ERP) which was the Employment side of GC business back then. 18 months in, GC asked me if I wanted to be seconded for six months to the prison in Risley working for GC, after which they asked me if I wanted to stay on, so I spent five years in Risley as a IAG in Custody Adviser until 2009.
When that contract finished, I moved into the probation offices working as an Employment & Training Consultant between Trafford and Salford probation offices on the OLASS Project. I think I was the only GC colleague working in probation for a number of years.
Following that, from 2014 I spent a number of years working with the National Career Service covering numerous job centres and community centres all around South Manchester. Then I left and went back to the prisons again from 2019 and I did another three years across Risley and Hindley as an IAG in Custody Adviser.
Something a bit different
I was made aware of a new program working in drug and alcohol as part of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) activity, which was a bit different to the usual employability programmes that we've run at GC. It was more about long term support. So, working in the role of Senior Employment Specialist, in June 2022 I agreed to help set up the St Helen’s Office – which has been quite a success and we’ve helped around 70 people into employment over the last two years.
For the last year I’ve been supporting a lot of the new contracts – setting them up and helping support the new colleagues coming in. Just recently I've been given the title of ‘Fidelity Champion’, so when we're having reviews or internal audits, I sit with the teams for a couple of months helping them prep and set things up.
A front-runner in specialised areas
The nature of what we do at GC means a lot of the contracts we work on can be short, but at GC we're so supportive of our employees and try to place people wherever they can into other roles within the company. I’ve been through a few contracts coming to a close, and they’ve placed pretty much everybody I've come across into new roles, with the exception of those that wanted to move on to external opportunities.
I feel that GC is a front-runner in our line of work. I love the fact that we support and seek contracts that help the ‘harder to work with’ groups – including ex-offenders, people struggling with addiction.
It speaks volumes that I’ve worked here for over 20 years and haven’t wanted to apply for anywhere else. I’m not sure I’d get the same job satisfaction elsewhere. Here, I know I’m helping individuals to better themselves and I really enjoy delivering contracts that are all about the individuals and supporting those that need it most.
My job isn’t about bums on seats. I’m given time to provide support to individuals long term. Once we get them into work, we’re given another six months with them and continue that support whilst they find their feet. It’s not about how quickly we can turn the job around and make a profit. It emulates the values of GC and why we exist.
Progression opportunities and support
Over the last couple of years, I've moved more into the training and management of colleagues. It had never massively appealed to me, but coming over to the IPS programme and helping set that up amongst other new contracts, I really got into the bigger picture of it all. I’ve found that I’ve really enjoyed being a mentor to other colleagues.
I've been quite lucky in the fact that I've had really supportive managers throughout my career and they’ve helped me progress into a leadership role, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and hopefully I can move further up.
The main thing for me is the people I have worked with over the years. My teams have always been fantastic. GC has really good people working for them and because it's so diverse, I feel like I'm constantly learning things from my colleagues with different backgrounds and from different environments.