A new beginning

The challenge

MT was referred to Motiv-8 after committing a serious offence that meant he served a five-year sentence that also resulted in him being placed on life licence. His licence restrictions also meant that he was away from his nearest job centre and he had to attend Blackwood Job Centre. He was referred early to Motiv-8 due to recognition of his employability barriers and also as a result of a locally focussed strategy of prioritising MAPPA customers.

MT gave the impression of being confident and presented as bright and bubbly. He had previously been engaged with a variety of organisations that had been trying to get him into employment. After a few sessions, it was obvious that MT was in fact suffering with considerable anxiety and worry about applying for jobs and having to disclose his offences to someone face to face. He truly believed that exposing his high-risk offence to any interviewer would be a barrier to him ever obtaining meaningful, future employment.

What we did

MT worked extremely closely with his coach, who fully re-worked his CV, ensuring it was up to date, had a more modern look and feel and any gaps were explained. This was achieved by creating a disclosure letter that MT could present at interview that minimised the verbalisation of his offence and gave MT the confidence to proceed at this stage of the interview. The coach and MT worked on interview questions, answers and mock interviews to build his confidence, self-esteem and positive mind-set ready for an interview. His CV was uploaded onto Indeed and interviews were being offered.

At the end of 2020, MT had an interview that went extremely well but it did not materialise into a job offer. This left him feeling totally deflated and he took the news very personally. He disengaged from sessions and his confidence deserted him. Early in 2021 Motiv-8 helped MT get another interview with Peters Pies and he carried out some further sessions to improve and regain his confidence and positive attitude. During this time United Welsh contacted Motiv-8 letting us know of an opportunity with Dragon Recycles. Motiv-8 secured an interview for MT and once again he attended fully prepared, he was punctual and engaging throughout. So much so, his interview went on for over an hour, with the interviewers very much enjoying his company.

The outcome

MT is now securely in work and doing amazingly well. He is enjoying his job and is extremely happy to finally be in work. We feel his confidence will only grow from here and we will see some amazing things from him in the future. United Welsh have gifted him a bike for his journeys to and from work. MT said; “For so long I had no replies to jobs I had applied for, you changed my CV and just like that they kept on coming in, that is all down to you, thank you. I’m excited to be back in work and they even said about me helping to train others. Thank you for talking to the company, I feel much more confident in doing the interview.”