The national lockdown created an opportunity for Kavita. She is back doing a job she loves – teaching, with the help and support from the Edinburgh team.
Why Kavita joined Fair Start Scotland?
Kavita initially joined the service after she lost her job as a café supervisor. Prior to this, she worked as a primary school teacher in India and holds a postgraduate qualification in IT. Even though she has lots of experience working in the education sector, she was struggling to find work as she didn’t have any UK work experience.
How Fair Start Scotland helped?
Kavita was introduced to her personal adviser Shirley-Ann, who was able to use her knowledge of the education sector to look for training courses and voluntary opportunities in schools. However, her jobsearch came to a sudden halt as the Government announced a national lockdown the week after Kavita joined the service – which had an impact on the education sector.
Shirley-Ann contacted Cranley Nurseries on behalf of Kavita to find out if she could get her onto a waiting list for the next available nursery placement. Getting a placement opportunity would eventually lead to a full-time paid job, she also looked at getting Kavita registered for the SVQ level in childcare. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the placement was put on hold for the foreseeable future.
Kavita was also willing to consider financial and administration roles, particularly school administration as the roles she was interested in were proving difficult to find. Shirley-Ann was determined to help Kavita, so she began searching for alternative courses and came across an online teaching assistant course facilitated by REED, costing £1,140. However, due to the lockdown they were offering the course at a lower price of £10 for people on benefits or have a low income. It was a requirement that the candidates could demonstrate they were committed to working in a childcare environment and had the motivation of completing the course - this was perfect for Kavita.
She successfully completed the course and soon qualified, Shirley-Ann was able to use this qualification on Kavita’s CV to apply for positions in schools and nurseries.
Getting the job
Kavita’s journey was constantly being disrupted by the national lockdown with schools and nurseries closing. Kavita was determined and continued to respond to job alerts from Edinburgh City Council while Shirley-Ann continued to forward Kavita’s CV for all suitable roles presented by the Employer Services team.
Kavita was invited to attend an interview for a pupil support assistant as well as an early year's assistant with the City of Edinburgh Council. She was amazed when she was offered both positions, Kavita chose the early years’ role, as she preferred to work with pre-school children.
She was beyond delighted and relieved to have finally secured the job she had been so determined to find.
In the long-term, Kavita’s plans to progress a career within early year’s learning.