A life changing career move – Wayne’s story

After many years as a hairdresser, Wayne decided it was time for a career change, as he could no longer continue in this sector due to issues with his back. Wayne joined the Better Working Futures service, where he met Employment Adviser, Paula, and expressed his eagerness to get back into work and explore his options of different job sectors.

During his first appointment, Wayne talked about how he had worked full time, whilst caring for his family who also needed his support; this led him to a realise his potential in the Care Sector. Wayne wanted to work in a more suitable role to accommodate his back issues, but he wasn’t sure where to start with his job search, or how he would find a different role with little experience other than hairdressing.

“When you’ve done something for so long, you don’t know anything else but that trade. Coming to a place like Reed in Partnership can help you understand what your transferrable skills are, in order to look at different job routes”.

Paula and Wayne explored multiple career paths, and together they worked on improving his CV and Wayne took part in several of our in-house course sessions including ‘Is self-employment right for you?’, ‘Transferrable Skills’ and our CV workshop.

Wayne began to consider new opportunities and, following the completion of these courses and with his new and updated CV, he began applying for jobs with the support of Paula.

Wayne looked into care working opportunities local to him as he expressed that he had developed a passion for helping others since caring for his family at home. It wasn’t long before he was invited to an interview, for which Paula was able to provide vouchers for new interview clothes and reimburse Wayne’s travel costs, to ensure his transition back into work was as smooth as possible for him.

Wayne was offered the job! He told us:

“There’s all sorts of opportunities, doors have opened, things change. If people get the chance to come to a place like this, they should take it!”

Huge congratulations to Wayne on your new career journey!