A Supported Employment Journey until Retirement

On the 9^th of December one of our clients, Paula Hardy, had her retirement party! Her Employment Coach, Caroline Hood, and our General Strategic Manager, David Randall, attended her retirement party with her and the staff from Holyport College to celebrate her eight years at the college!

We have supported Paula throughout her employment journey as we began working with her in 2011. Paula has a learning disability and struggles to read and write so came to Ways into Work to receive support in finding employment. One of our Employment Coaches helped Paula to find a good job match and then supported her in applying for the role as a Laundry Assistant at Holyport College which she got in 2014! Holyport College have been a fantastic, supportive, and inclusive employer throughout Paula’s career. Employers like this can make such an important difference to someone who has a disability, or other employment barrier, and we are so pleased to work with them.

At Ways into Work, we provide a personal approach for each of our clients and work with their employers to help support them in the best way possible. One of the issues Paula faced was with reading so name labels were created and put on the lockers so that Paula could match the name on the item of clothing before putting it away. Her Employment Coach also supported Paula through Furlough and liaised between her and the college when she needed to reduce her hours more recently when her joints started becoming an issue. The college was more than happy to carve out her role to accommodate for this, rather than lose her, showing what a valued employee Paula has been! Over the years Paula has even helped to train new staff and always contributes toward good team morale.

The college has said:

“Paula started to work for the College when it opened in September 2014. However, there is much more to the story than that - when she was younger, she attended Holyport Manor School, the school which used to be on our site. In that sense, she's been here longer than any of us. She's also making history again today, as she is the first member of Holyport College staff to officially retire. Everyone is going to miss Paula, especially the boarders for whom she did so much. We all wish her a long and happy retirement.”

At her retirement party, Paula was presented with a reading pen from the college as well as flowers and was thanked for her hard work during her time at the college. She is pictured with her manager, Tony Nivas, and her Ways into Work Employment Coach, Caroline Hood at the party.

At Ways into Work, we are very proud of everything Paula has achieved and want to wish her a lovely retirement!