David and Ingeus UK (Restart Scheme) transcript

In 2021, my wife was diagnosed with a serious type of cancer. Within 9 months, she's passed on. And in that 9 month period I was working but also caring for her at home. And then, when she passed on, the responsibility of taking care of our four kids now was upon me. I had to find work and at the same time, care for the children. That was a challenge. And for a whole year, I tried trying to get employment that fitted into my schedules. There was the alternative of having childcare but then my last born was quite young and had just lost a mother, so I needed to be more closer to him.

All the jobs I applied for, I was successful. But then when it came to the issue of agreeing on working times then I could not meet the requirements of the employers. So previously I worked with Refugee Action for quite a long time, over 12 years, until COVID started. Then I said say, ‘I need to be there for my kids.’

And I stopped working. I was referred to the Restart Scheme having been with the Job Center for a year and not being into employment. It was a natural progression.

So a career coach is somebody that helps and supports someone with their career goals, their aspirations. And I help them with their one-to-ones in group coaching. I helped David to articulate his value. The things that he was really good at so we can sit down and look at key achievements and really nail that for interview purposes so that he stands out from the competition. Ideally a job was advertised by sector3. I applied, then went back again to Restart Scheme for the support in doing the CV and interview practice.

To me, that led to what enabled me to get the job, you know, getting that support.

Sector3 are a local infrastructure organisation. So we support the voluntary community, faith and social enterprise sector across Stockport, which is made up of about 1,800 groups and charities. It's important for Sector3 to be an inclusive employer. We've got a varied team, with very varied skillset and I think we would lose a lot of that. We would lose a lot of that talent and experience if we didn't take, you know, the home life and the whole person into consideration.

I am super proud of what David has achieved. He is the gift that keeps on giving. He has an amazing person. He took all the coaching and the suggestions on board. He attended all workshops. He was really engaged with the process. Oh David settling in really well. Yeah, he's a real natural. He's got a great way with people and the work that he's doing is already having an impact in such a short space of time.

I think the experience has really made me happier. I think I'm having the best of two worlds because I'm am able to be with my children, able to prepare a nice food for them. At the same time, I'm able to do my work. When my kids are happy, I'm happy. I can perform better.