Region: West Midlands

Year: 2022

Before coming to Springboard, I was so lost and unsure of my future. It had been a year since I graduated from university, and I was still unemployed. This was due to a lot of internal anxiety I had held around everything to do with careers,  job applications, and many of the elements they contained. I knew what to do theoretically to attain a job, however my anxiety got me into a really difficult rut, and I felt there was no way out.

I found out about the Springboard course and was extremely grateful to learn that the training would be face-to-face in a venue, rather than being a virtual program. During my difficult times of unemployment, it really helped break the cycle to get out of the house and talk to new people every day. Having that structure, with the great mentors, improved my positive outlook on jobs immensely over the first week, giving me the momentum, I really needed.

On one of the days, we had a day out, planned for CV hand-outs; this was a very nerve-wracking day for me in the beginning. Going into different establishments and not only dropping off my CV but also being able to talk about my skillset with confidence. As someone with a lot of pre-anxiety around this area, I needed a system to help me confront and overcome my fears. This has made me realise it’s okay to accept support and that you may need someone to guide you.

Another section I particularly benefited from was the assertiveness lecture, in which we went through a FLOW module. A key part of the hospitality workplace is learning and understanding boundaries of dealing with different people effectively.

Over the course, having fun events, like the mini golf after the lectures, made sure it was a meaningful experience. It gave me the chance to get closer to my peers during that difficult time. I only later realised how important it was to do activities with your peers in a non-work situation, it allowed us all to open up and share more of our struggles and experiences to understand each other. In my time, coincidently, the team I was given was a small one of around 5 of us. However, I feel especially grateful that it was a smaller group, as this meant we all got more focus and tailored insights from our team leader.

During my time with Springboard, my course leader had the perfect balance of knowing when to push and giving me space, and time when it came to following out the actions that needed to be taken towards securing a job. The combination of those two gave me the strength to push myself and stretch my previous limits before coming on this course.

I’m very grateful for having a course that will support what you want to do, the tailored experience provides solid advice on looking at work environments you would thrive best within. I learned a lot more than just practical skills for hospitality but life lessons to take with us about learning to appreciate your worth and time and importance, which is still a key to confidence people will pick up and understand within work.

Even though I feel the benefits of how much this course has changed me, getting feedback from the course leaders on how much I had progressed since I first came was motivating. She talked in detail about how nervous and self-doubting I was at the beginning to now being someone who can confidently take on new challenges.

I knew I had changed when I found myself in a new difficult situation which I had to deal with, and when that occurred, I remained calm, practical, and rational. After that scene, it made me pause and realise how subconsciously I have now gained such a toolkit. I was never able to do that before. So that moment was very special to me.

During my placement, I realised I was a person who liked to work hard, look after others, always stay on my feet, do better. I just didn’t recognise that in myself from being in a difficult place with low self-esteem for a long time. In my experience, after 2 days within my given placement, after showcasing what I had learned, even without me realising it, they offered me and another springboard attendee job opportunities within the company.

The nicest part was knowing even if the hotel holiday inn didn’t offer me any employment and was left to search for work on my own, I now have that clarity that I can find and secure a job if I want one. Having together all the effective toolkits with me now: To apply in stores, send effective emails to companies, and understand how to prepare for interviews. All these skills, not just learnt but experienced and practised through the weeks at springboard, have really changed my life and helped me get into work. People don’t realise how debilitating it is not to be able to be employed or be employed and how that affects mental health and self-esteem and how I now feel so capable. I’m now really excited for my new job. I am so grateful to springboard for this opportunity to have a new era of fulfilling, challenging work.

In a space where I felt lost, having a whole program to reinvent young people to believe in them that they have skills, they have worth, and that they are important is so invaluable. As for myself and other individuals who feel the pressure and discouragement of unemployment to be made sure to be supported and most of all believed in, which I think is the most significant part in my opinion and how every team leader gave me that support on this course.

I would recommend this programme to anyone who feels lost in their career and, more importantly, feels very trapped within their anxiety. This course helped me get out of a difficult place with my mindset, so to realise that everyone has so many skills already can get into the world of work.