Meet Ian

"I’ve had quite an unsettled life to date and I’ve been homeless for four or five years now and I’m currently sofa surfing between my friend’s place and my mum’s house.

The worst thing about looking for work is when you find a job you want and they take your telephone number and then you’re sitting around waiting for a call and then you don’t hear anything from them – that eats away at your confidence.

I also can’t read or write so when I was on the dole, they needed me to do job searches, but I couldn’t do them because I can’t read or write and I’d get sanctioned and lose half my benefits and my rent and council tax benefit.

When I came to Employment Plus, the main thing I needed was to get my confidence built up and to get a CV. I didn’t know what to do or where to go on the journey towards finding a job. Since I’ve been at Employment Plus, they’ve built up my confidence and helped me with approaching employers to find work and with doing job interviews. I also know now where to come for help with filling in forms.

I feel pretty good now – I’ve found a job, which Sam – the Employment Plus Employment Development Co-ordinator, helped me to find. Sam also gave me the confidence to go for the job and showed that she believed in me.

I’m saving up now to get a deposit so that I can get a place of my own. That’s really exciting and it inspires me and if it wasn’t for Sam and Employment Plus, I’d still be in the same situation."