Kingsley and Cornelius took part in a four-week work placement with award-winning ground maintenance provider, Idverde to help develop their skills and confidence. Our training team helped to support them with developing functional skills, employability advice and taking that next step into the working world.
Jobs, education and training
Starting off in the working world can be an overwhelming and uncertain time for a lot of young people. Developing the right skills and finding out what you might be interested in doing isn’t always clear and it can be hard know where to start. At Centrepoint, we want to support all young people to make informed, appropriate and thought-out career decisions, and where possible, give them opportunities for training and placements to start them on their journeys.
Centrepoint runs a range of different courses, activities and placements and to help young people on the path to lasting employment. This story follows two young people, Kingsley and Cornelius, who completed a four-week placement as part of Centrepoint’s training and education programme with award-winning ground maintenance provider, Idverde.
These placements take a holistic approach, where young people are given a package of tailored support to develop their skills and confidence. This includes developing functional skills around maths, cyber security and health and safety, an industry placement and employability advice and interviews to help each young person to reach their individual goal.
Kingsley's story
Kingsley, 21, is one of the young people taking part in this training course. Already completing his level one garden and maintenance at college, he was excited by the opportunity to further his skills and get some practical experience with Idverde. Kingsley’s interest in gardening began whilst he was in care and saw how beneficial it was for his wellbeing. “When I was in care, I used to help my care worker with the gardening. I actually really enjoyed it because when I do it, I just feel free, stress free and I just feel like I’m not on this earth and I just go somewhere else. And it does really help with my mental health as well.”
Kingsley has ambitions to set up his own company one day, covering everything from ground maintenance and construction to painting and decorating to fitting electricals. “I just want to pick up new skills. I don’t only want to focus on the ground maintenance – I’ve done painting and decorating before, but I didn’t get the chance to finish it but hopefully I can go back to college soon and finish it off”.
He’s grateful for the skills this combined course has helped him to grow and give him the confidence to flourish in his placement and beyond. “I know that if they give me something I need to measure and I have to work out the volume of what I need to plant, I can do that now”.
Cornelius's story
Cornelius, 22, has also been on the course honing his ground maintenance skills and gaining experience in areas that he’s interested in pursuing in the future. He previously had been a gardener for a hotel but was excited about how much more informative this course was and the potential avenues it opened up for him.
His key worker suggested that he put himself forward for this placement to help him develop his skills and build his confidence in a working environment. For him the wraparound support and experience of the course allowed him to develop the autonomy to take those next steps that feel right for him. “The placement has been great, and it’s been quite educational and pretty fun learning a lot of things I like. While I’ve been here, I’ve been able to pinpoint what I want to do a bit more with my career and moving forward I want to do something within cybersecurity”.
Within the placement, the training and education team delivered an introduction to cyber security, to prepare and inform the young people around working in a digital environment. For Cornelius, this helped to cement his interest in taking this into the next step, “it was very enlightening. It was just an introduction with Pedro and that kind of made me want to properly study that kind of security”.
Thinking back on the experience and the impact that the placement has had for him, Cornelius reflected on the positives of taking part. “It’s great if you don’t really know what you want to do and if you want to gain some more skills and qualifications and some more confidence when it comes to working, especially as a young person. I don’t have a lot of confidence despite being 22 when it came to how I was going to make money and do something that I wanted to do at the same time. So yeah, it’s definitely beneficial for anyone that’s young, wants more skills and wants a bit more of a purpose”.
Looking to the future
Steven, who works for Idverde, when talking about why this partnership, and ones like it are important, said, “It’s nice to give these young people a chance. I think young people get a bit of a tough time and we can teach them what we know”. Similar to Kingsley, Steven says “being outdoors is just so beneficial for your wellbeing. It’s great to have your hands in the soil, learning about the bugs and looking after the ground.”
Following the four weeks of training and placement, Idverde then offered both Cornelius and Kingsley an interview for a part time role. Both young people performed strongly in the interviews and were offered the position, which was testament to their hard work and dedication. Kingsley accepted the position and is looking forward to working part time, alongside his studies. Cornelius, after deciding that he saw his future in cyber security declined the offer but will be taking up an admin role in the Idverde offices to help develop his digital skills and help him take the next steps towards his dream career.
We’re so pleased for Kingsley and Cornelius and so proud of what they have achieved in their placements. We can’t wait to see what they do next and wish them all the best for their exciting futures ahead.