Jack Swann has been unemployed for 7-8 months. He recently moved to the area from Plymouth. Jack struggled with socialising and communicating with new groups of people. For the past 7-8 months he has been applying for hundreds of jobs week after week and has received no responses. Jack lives on his own, in a property he rents locally. He finds the fact he never receives a response from his cv/letters he sends to employers frustrating but he is generally happy in himself.
Actions Taken
Jack was referred to the Phoenix project by Penryn Job Centre Plus. He attended a pre meet at the job centre a week before the course started. Jack wasn’t sure if the course was going to be for him as he was not sure what to expect.
Summary of Benefits and Evaluation Method
Over the duration of the course the learners complete a day by day evaluation. In addition to this they complete a self assessment on the final day to identify strengths and weaknesses and to set future goals. Jack sent a text to one of the instructors “I am so grateful for what you have done you are all very wonderful people and I will never forget what you have done and how Phoenix has helped me” the Phoenix Course has helped me in raising my confidence levels and communication skills, I no longer feel shy when meeting new groups of people. I would say that my confidence has increased by over 50%. I learnt lots of valuable transferable skills during the week but the main thing for me was learning how to work with new people and improve my teamwork skills. I felt confident speaking on the final day and even answered questions confidently from the audience during the presentation. Something which I didn’t think I was going to be able to achieve on the previous day.
In the future, I would really like to be a volunteer to assist in future phoenix courses, both working with schools or job centres.