New job, new goals – Eddy’s story

When referred to the Restart Scheme, Eddy met with Employment Adviser, Nicky, who immediately began to build a rapport with. Following Eddy’s initial appointment, he committed to attending a range of our in-house courses to better himself, which had a positive impact on his confidence and mental health.

Nicky told us:

“Eddy came to us with extremely low confidence, he was quietly spoken and nervous during appointments. On at least one occasion, Eddy felt unable to attend a job interview as he had felt stressed an anxious about it. He also had a job offer but felt unable to take it up.”

Eddy had previous experience in warehousing and production operative job roles and wanted to continue in to look for work in this job sector, although he was open to new job sectors.

Nicky told us: “We reviewed and updated Eddy’s CV and identified that, in addition to warehouse and production roles, he had spent time as a voluntary skipper of a boat ride service. This inspired me to recommend Eddy to our Transferable Skills workshop.

"During one of our appointments, I was able to introduce him to our Skills Trainer who showed him around the training room so that he could allay any fears about attending training sessions. The workshop succeeded in working on his confidence, so Eddy then attended several other workshops and received further support from Reed Wellbeing services, which helped him cope with his anxiety.”

During Eddy’s time on the Restart Scheme, and the workshops he attended, his self-confidence and general wellbeing had massively improved, and this helped him identify any additional skills and attributes that he had overlooked previously.

Employment Adviser, Nicky, was able to support with travel costs for appointments and interviews, also providing vouchers for interview clothes which boosted Eddy’s confidence for his interviews. Eddy proceeded to have several interviews, and finally became successful in receiving two job offers, to which he accepted a role as a Warehouse Operative in the farming industry. This was initially temporary - however, due to good performance, he was then offered the job on a permanent basis.

When asked about his experience with the Restart Scheme, Eddy expressed:

"Brilliant courses, brilliant people".

Eddy has been back into the Selby office since starting his new job and has told us how he’s recently passed his driving test, and that his goal is to become an HGV driver once he has enough driving experience. Eddy sees this as a future progression opportunity within the company.