Wayne’s Journey Towards Employment with IPES During the Pandemic

• The Intensive, Personalised Employment Support (IPES) programme provides bespoke support to people with disabilites.
• The programme focuses on moving them into sustained employment.
• Find out how we helped Wayne during the pandemic. 

Wayne suffered from health barriers, both physical and mental- which limited the number of hours he could realistically work, and he also suffered from anxiety and low confidence, not helped by worries surrounding the pandemic. Without regular contact due to lockdown, and no home access to the internet, he found job searches understandably difficult, which attributed more to his low confidence.

Enter IPES. Wayne met his own personal keyworker, and they clicked immediately- understanding his situation, his keyworker Christine sent his paperwork all safely by post, and called him regularly so he had a constant contact. She’d help him search for jobs over the phone. Soon after, his confidence slowly began to build, and Christine helped him with creating a new CV that reflected all of his transferable skills and experience.

Over the course of these first few months of job seeking, Wayne met with several challenges, but he overcame them. In addition, Christine also supported Wayne in managing his finances. Capitalising on this newfound confidence, Wayne looked into upskilling with us, and we supported him to go on a Maths course and courses to make him more digitally aware. We had workbooks forwarded to his home so he could work on them independently.

With his newfound confidence, it was time for Wayne to start applying for jobs and he was successful in securing multiple job interviews.

He was successful for a role at Taylor Arcades that he was extremely interested in- he did well in the interview and presented himself excellently. He started this role in the summer, and his self confidence has increased, in no small part to the tremendous amount of effort he put into pushing himself. The only issue now, was that he’d need to switch from job seekers allowance to universal credit, and he still had no internet access.

Through the Good Things Foundation’s Everyone Connected (formerly Devices Dot Now) project, funded by National Lottery Community Fund, we were able to send him a tablet with internet, direct to his home. This now means he can update his universal credit journal, and look for work independently, or flex his new digital awareness skills. It’s another of level independence for him. He was supported and helped with his universal account, and the continued training is allowing him to keep his skills up to date. We’ll be staying in contact with Wayne, as he transitions from part-time to full-time work.

We got in touch with Wayne to ask him how he found the IPES service, and he said: “It has been good for me; I would like to thank Christine and her staff for the support they have given me during these difficult times.”

IPES will continue to support Wayne to ensure he is safe in his working environment, has access to any upskilling he wants to undertake, has the support to manage his finances better and continues to build upon the amazing work he’s already done for himself.

IPES help vulnerable adults and long-term unemployed people find work through gentle support and a variety of possible interventions- if you need help, we are here for you. For more information about the programme, please contact us on 0151 556 9250 / 07901239515 or email IPESenquiries@growthco.uk

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The Growth Company is an award-winning social enterprise with a mission to generate growth, create jobs, and improve lives. We provide employment services across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire and Humber.

Get in touch today to find out more.