Craig finds fulfilling new direction and Brighter Future

“Watching the staff do their jobs and wanting to support the young people made me realise I wanted to help young people because of my own experiences.”

A young jobseeker has found a fulfilling career which enables him to help others after discovering his vocation during a Warwickshire Brighter Futures break away camp.

The Warwickshire Brighter Futures project, run by Warwickshire Skills Hub and funded by the Government’s Community Renewal Fund, aimed to help people aged 16-30 years who were unemployed or inactive to get closer to the job market through five strands of activities.

One of the strands was break away camps designed to create an opportunity for care leavers and other priority groups of young people to travel away from home for a few days. This would enable them to experience open spaces, build confidence and participate in immersive activities with other young people with similar life experiences.

Eighteen-year-old Craig Martin, from Nuneaton, attended one of these camps with the Outward Bound Trust in Aberdovey, Wales. It proved a life-changing experience.

The Warwickshire Skills Hub took 20 young people to Aberdovey for three days to explore skills through outdoor activities such as raft building, rock climbing and orienteering. Career Seekers Direct advisors also attended to deliver careers sessions for the young people to identify the skills they were using in the activities and how those skills could relate to the world of work.

Craig attended the camp with a couple of his friends to try some new activities and explore potential career pathways. During his time there, he found it so interesting how staff members wanted to help the young people around them and this inspired him to explore the idea of working with young people himself.

“Watching the staff do their jobs and wanting to support the young people made me realise I wanted to help young people because of my own experiences,” said Craig. “I don’t want others to face the same struggles I have.”

After the residential trip, Craig moved around jobs in retail but found they weren’t fulfilling his desire to help others. When he moved back to Nuneaton, he saw a job offer which could provide an opportunity to help others so, although he didn’t have the experience outlined on the advert, decided to apply.

He was successful. Craig is now working for P3, a Nuneaton-based service that provides a safe place for people who are homeless to live and a support package to tackle the root causes of their homelessness. He has been assigned to work with young people who are homeless, transferring them to housing, conducting assessments to see if they are suitable for the housing and organising independent living training and life skills training.

“It is a rewarding job and doesn’t feel like work, it feels like family.” he said. “I love being able to help others and use my own experiences to help them fulfil their potential.”

Niki Dhunna, Careers and Employability Programme Manager at Warwickshire Skills Hub, said: “The whole team at Warwickshire Skills Hub is thrilled to have been a part of helping Craig in his career journey and can’t wait to see what he achieves in the future. We are delighted that the Warwickshire Brighter Futures Break Away Camp proved to be such a catalyst for his exciting and rewarding new direction.”

• The Warwickshire Brighter Futures project received £509,333 from the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. The UK Community Renewal Fund is a UK Government programme for 2021/22 which aimed to support people and communities most in need across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches to prepare for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It invested in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment.