Pictured above: Gavin Wesson
Made redundant last autumn, father-of-three Gavin Wesson, 31
from Top Valley in Nottingham had his confidence shattered as he
had never been out of work before.
Being dyslexic and needing to find a job in these tough times,
Gavin's self esteem was hit again when he failed a written entrance
test to become a bus driver for Nottingham City Transport.
Gavin's luck then changed when he was referred to a Euro-funded
project, Skills for Jobs, run by Care Training East Midlands.
His confidence was boosted by job search tips, CV writing and
one-to-one advice.
Skills for Jobs is funded by almost £840,000 from the
European Social Fund (ESF) 2007-13 and the Learning and Skills
Council East Midlands. ESF is investing £376m overall
to boost skills and jobs in the region, which is even more vital in
this current economic climate.
Gavin explains, "When my lorry driving work ended, I was
suddenly struggling to financially support my young family which
was something I wasn't use to.
"All my previous jobs had been gained by word of mouth, so I
have never had to go for a formal interview before, never mind an
entrance test. I was completely out of my comfort zone. The
support I got from Care Training, and my adviser Jessica, was
brilliant and gave me the confidence to try again for the bus
driver job."
Gavin got the chance to re-take his entrance test - and achieved
the second highest pass rate of the day. He started his bus
driver training in June and is due to finish soon.
"The second time round I was far more confident and I did the
test on coloured paper - which may sound a bit odd - but for me, it
helped the words stand out and this made all the difference."
His adviser Jessica Grice said, "We were all delighted when
Gavin passed the entrance test - literally with flying colours - to
get a permanent job. When I first met Gavin, he was obviously
concerned by his redundancy and the current job market. We assessed
his skills and enrolled him onto an adult literacy course and
customer service training programme, to further help his bus driver
application.
"We will also continue to support Gavin over the next few months
and he's planning to enrol onto the NVQ level 2 in passenger
carrying vehicle driving to further boost his skills and
qualifications."
Gavin added, "The training was great, I really enjoyed
being able to practice my customer skills with people in a similar
position to me."
Care Training East Midlands is a partly government funded
training provider based in the City Centre of Nottingham. Working
not only in Nottingham but in the whole of the East Midlands,
delivering knowledge and skills needed to make a competitive
workforce and improve people's lives through learning and
development.