Sarah wanted to become more independent in her professional and personal life, but her lack of self-confidence was holding her back.
Why did Sarah join Fair Start Scotland?
Sarah is a lone parent and currently living with her dad. She joined the service after struggling to get job interviews which totally knocked her confidence. Sarah wanted to secure a job to support her young child and become more independent, but she was worried how she would cope with making the transition from relying on Universal Credit to paid employment.
How did Fair Start Scotland help?
Sarah met with her Personal Adviser, Gayle in our Ayr office and their first meeting focused on finding out more about Sarah to give her the right support to meet her needs. Sarah highlighted what she was struggling with - Gayle looked at her current CV that she had been using to apply for roles. It was clear that her CV was not showing all of Sarah’s skills and experience to help her move forward. She had not accounted for her work experience in food outlets or even made reference to the hairdressing qualification she has achieved.
Gayle helped Sarah to tailor her CVs that reflected her transferable skills and experience she needed to enter a job in Catering and Cleaning – the work area she has most experience in.
Fair Start Scotland paid for her to complete the Food Hygiene and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health online courses to give her the right level of qualifications she needed to apply for the type of roles she was interested in.
Fair Start Scotland paid for her to complete the Food Hygiene and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health online courses to give her the right level of qualifications she needed to apply for the type of roles she was interested in.
Getting the job
Gayle helped Sarah to secure jobs for Marks and Spencer and Adamton Hotel through the agency Haven. Through this time, we supported her with clothing and travel money until she received her first wage. Haven was very impressed and delighted with her and have offered her a full-time contract.
Sarah started in her new role in January and she has flourished in confidence and is more positive. She now aims to gain her Personal Licence and we are helping her secure funding through in-work support.