Y struggled with her personal life in school but managed to gain the qualifications to get onto a degree level course away from home, due to circumstances Y was not able to complete this and left the course early.
Y came into the service after leaving her degree course due to a decline in her mental health during Covid, ongoing health issues and effectively becoming homeless due to situations at home. Y was referred in by Adferiad recovery that provide support for people with co-occurring mental health and substance misuse .
We worked together to understand the direction Y wanted to go in but she was unsure about work or education.
We worked together to build on confidence and Y enrolled onto a number of short courses with the view of starting a career in support work with the focus been youth/ care work.
At the beginning Y was hard to engage with, Y would arrive at the meetings with support staff from her housing due to her levels of anxiety, at this point we were able to complete work stars and an action plan but Y was still unclear what she would like to.
However, after 3 weeks Y was supported by myself over the phone to arrive at the meeting on her own, when Y arrived at the appointment she spoke passionately about how she would like to get into care or youth work, Y explained that she had professionals that have worked with her for a number of years and how she sees that as she has first hand experience she knows and has the skills needed to have a successful career in this area.
Although Y knew what area she wants to work in and has the education level to start a full time course at a high level, Y felt shes not clever enough and needs easing back into education and a taster into some small courses so she is completely sure this is the career path she would like to follow, that she can understand the work and to also gain confidence and belief that she has the ability to succeed.
Y enrolled onto an introduction to care 2-week online course with high speed training and successfully completed this.
After completing the course Y arrived at her appointment with myself full of confidence with a list of short courses that she would like to look into and a long term goal of accessing a full time college course in health and social care.
Y discussed with me how she now has the belief that she can complete a higher-level course in the future.
Finding the most suitable route for each participant is crucial.
Using the work start and having discussions identifies the areas participants need to work, creating an action plan together gives the participant a real sense of ownership of their “journey” to reach their goal.
Y needed the support to gradually get back into education to gain the belief that she can do it.
Being able to offer her a short course as part of her action plan was crucial for Y to be able to move closer to her future education and career goal.
Y is currently completing short courses to build on her confidence and is applying to Llandrillo college when enrolment re opens for her chosen course.