Manjeet Kaur - BRIDGES

Manjeet Kaur, 56 is unemployed and has very limited work experience in factory and care work. She lives with her husband and two grown-up, independent children.

Manjeet has no IT skills and very limited English speaking ability which causes her to lack confidence. Due to these barriers, Manjeet was relying on third parties in order to complete her job searches – in particular an independent community centre who were only doing job searches to match the job centre criteria and withheld her log-in information, which concerned her. She was not attending any other training at that time.

She wanted to develop her skills in order to make herself employable, but also so that she could job search independently.

Meeting with the project officer and facilitator at Bridges, part of the Building Better Opportunities programme, Manjeet discussed that she felt she lacked the skills needed in the current job market, and that she wasn’t getting adequate support to develop these skills anywhere else. Manjeet attended 1-2-1 IT support sessions with the facilitator and English as a Second Language for Employment classes.

Whereas previously she had difficulty attracting attention from agencies and employers, Manjeet started to receive calls for potential employment, and has now secured employment in a care home as a care worker and is due to start work at the end of January 2017. She plans to continue working in the care sector and intends to develop her English and IT skills.

“I am getting the help and support that I need to help me get ready for work. I feel more confident in myself and I am not so shy to speak out more in class. I have received a lot of support here.”