Kaneez joined GRoW in January 2020 just before the first lockdown and was initially supporting Liz with GRoW participants in Newham. She has undertaken a range of training courses and has grown in confidence and as a result has changed her career plans, deciding on a permanent future within the employability sector.
Kaneez said “When I first came to GRoW I had no experience of working in the employability sector and I had to learn on the job. At first I worked alongside Liz to support her clients who were going through the GRoW Programme but as I built up my experience I was allocated my own clients who I started to work with on a one to one basis offering support around childcare and how to find a job. Initially I wasn’t very confident as I was unsure of what to say and what not to say to people but after doing the job for a short while my confidence began to grow and it became clearer to me how to provide the right kind of support.
One of the first things I needed to do when I started the job was to give a reference to a participant who I was supporting. I wasn’t sure how much I should write but with Liz’s support I learned what to do and it made me feel really good to be helping people to move forward in their life. Working with people on a one to one basis and getting to know them is a really rewarding part of my job and after I had been doing the job for about a year I was really pleased to be offered the opportunity to study the Level 2 Accredited Sector Qualification from the IEP which is designed specifically for employability practitioners. As I had already been doing the job for a while I already had a good basic knowledge but the course gave me some really valuable insights such as explanations of sector-specific terminology and abbreviations that I had not been aware of before. Before I did the course I had to check a lot with Liz when I came across words I did not understand so it was good to get access to all this information in one place and build that knowledge up for myself. The course also taught me different ways to work with our clients and different strategies to use with different people. I learned to organise myself better and as a team we started using the suggested framework that the course suggested which has helped us all become more coordinated and work better together.
I have always considered learning new things to be important. The IEP course was fantastic and they are adding new modules all the time such as the Over 50s employability support and Supporting people with Neurodiversity. I am looking forward to undertaking these courses so that I can learn new techniques to better support my clients and am planning to do both modules over the Christmas break.
Before I came to GRoW my plan had always been to work in a school as either a Teaching Assistant or a Learning Support Assistant. I had started looking for opportunities to go down that line of work and started doing courses that would help me achieve my goal. I did a Level 2 Teaching Assistant course followed by a Level 2 Introduction in Caring for Young Children course with Strive Training. I then went on to do a course in Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties. In 2019 I started volunteering in a school in Newham and it was whilst I was there that I was introduced to GRoW.
Since joining GRoW I have never looked back. I no longer feel I want to work in a school as I am really happy to be an employment adviser, I honestly can’t see myself doing anything else! It wasn’t something I had ever considered or even had any knowledge of but I have been in the sector now for 2 years and thoroughly enjoy it. I feel so confident doing the job now and find it so rewarding. When a client gets a dream job and I feel I have helped them achieve that it makes me feel so happy. The team are all so supportive too, I know I can call on any of my colleagues if I need advice on how to support a client or anything else I need. We all help each other to make sure our clients get the best level of support and it makes a huge difference in my life working with Belina GRoW.