Utilising my life experience – Ruth’s story

When Ruth was referred by her Jobcentre Plus Work Coach to the Restart Scheme, she was apprehensive about the support that was on offer. However, during her initial appointment with Employment Adviser, Andrea, she felt at ease and reassured that she would soon be back in employment with our help.

Andrea told us:

“Mobility had become an issue for Ruth, after more than 25 years of manually moving and handling her daughter who is disabled. Ruth was a full-time carer for her mum too, who used a wheelchair, so a lot of movement support was always required from her.”

Ruth utilised the courses available on the Restart Scheme, and enrolled onto several different sessions, including Health and Wellbeing. The Health and Wellbeing workshops provided Ruth with support on her overall wellbeing, health checks, how to manage fatigue, stress, and mental health. Ruth told us how this really helped get her into the right mindset to begin her job search.

Andrea highlighted Ruth’s transferrable skills that she could bring to a new job, from past experiences, being a mum, and carer, and together they created a gold standard CV ready to use for her job search. They explored multiple job sectors and filtered through the types of jobs that Ruth was interested in pursuing.

Andrea explained: “Working from home sounded ideal to Ruth, she wasn’t aware this was possible until we discussed this at one of our appointments together.”

Ruth found the perfect job for herself, and with Andrea’s support on the application process, she got the job, working from home for the NHS!

Ruth told us:

“It was never about being forced into work; it was about finding the ideal job! I can’t thank Andrea and the Restart Scheme enough!”