Rosemary Parr – BBC Radio 5 Live: Reflections on the Opportunity to Mentor a young Mum starting her own business

The experience of the last few months mentoring Danielle Devlin for BBC Radio 5 Live has been interesting and worthwhile.  I have watched Danielle gain strength from the support she has received from her local Enterprise Club, the publicity from Radio 5 Live and from the regular mentoring opportunity with myself.  It has all contributed to broadening her horizons as to what she is capable of achieving.  From a hesitant start Danielle built her own website and created her own marketing material and approached her local Primary School and Community Centre.  This resulted in opportunities to paint a timeline of history murals for the school and paint murals for the Community Centre.  It also involved Danielle holding art classes for children with behavioural problems at the Community Centre which she very much enjoyed.

Enterprise Allowance Scheme

Danielle took advantage of the Enterprise Allowance Scheme which is available to young people who have been on Job Seeker’s Allowance for 6 months. The idea behind this scheme is a good one, to create an entrepreneurial spirit in our young unemployed and I know it has been working successfully in some regions e.g. Merseyside.  However Danielle’s experience was not as good as her local Job Centre staff in Stanley were not trained to manage people on the scheme and it was difficult for Danielle to even have an appointment as she is not registered on their computer system because she is not claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance. Danielle’s allowance stopped for 2 weeks when she moved from claiming the full allowance to half the allowance and the system did not connect, which caused Danielle further financial worry.  The scheme is backed up by mentors, however many of them are inexperienced in running a business and so it may not prove that beneficial for many start up business ideas.   I also question why claimants have to wait 6 months to apply for the Enterprise Allowance and in the meantime claim Job Seeker’s Allowance. If you are going to start a business and not look for a job is this a waste of Government money?

Youth Unemployment: Creating a Network of Motivational Coaches

Mentoring for young unemployed people is an excellent idea as it gives them the support that someone out there is championing them and encourages self belief and confidence.  My personal view is that Motivational Coaching of young people would be much more powerful than mentoring as it will create more opportunities and creative ideas for business start ups.  Coaching gets to the core of a person’s potential and a Coach will work with their Client to encourage their self awareness and potential for personal growth.  Coaching is still seen in the UK as the preserve of Senior Management but it can have a great impact on any person’s life.  Our young people are coming out of school with very little awareness of how to work with a Positive Mental Attitude in life and this is where Coaching can help. I would be happy to work with the Government on creating a Network of Motivational Coaches to tackle Youth Unemployment.

I am looking forward to following Danielle’s progress over the next few months as she continues to market her business. Working with her has shown me the potential and abilities of many of our young people which as a nation we must not ignore.

Rosemary Parr

Motivational Trainer & Coach

Month 4; Craig’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

Since February ”ve been on a roller coaster of emotions, some good and some bad. This experience has changed everything in my life. My surroundings, my thoughts, my mind set, my passion, my confidence, my ambition.

I find it hard to remember what kind of person I was like before the program. I don’t know if that is because I don’t want to remember or if it is because so much has happened in the last 4 months? The only thing I do know is that I feel alive again and I feel like the future has some good prospects for me. I am in no way shape or form delusional enough to think that my life is perfect or that I have reached my goal. If anything its far from it. After I have paid my rent I have £23 a week to live off, London life is pretty tough but I am addicted to being out of my comfort zone and I thrive off being challenged. Each day is a learning curve. I’m not only learning new things about design and the industry but I am learning things about myself too.

I have been living in London for 6 weeks now and I am currently on my second internship with OllyStudio, which was supposed to end after a week, but I am now in my second week and I have been asked to do a third, which I have happily accepted. This experience with OllyStudio has been amazing so far. I have learned so much within the last 2 weeks again not just about design and the industry but also about my capabilities and myself as a designer. Every day I walk home with a smile on my face because I have achieved something.

I also do designs at night when I get home and at the weekends for Oath magazine, which is due to launch any time soon. Every contact and opportunity that I come across I grab with both hands and use it.

My plan for now is to carry on working as an intern and working for Oath magazine. I want to be in a particular part of the design industry so I need to focus on learning more from my internships and work experience so that I can eventually get my folio of work to a standard that would be acceptable to even gain an interview. I have a mountain to climb but I am more than willing to put the work in to get where I want to be.

I cannot comprehend why this sort of program or parts of the program at least are part of the job centre’s initiatives. The biggest thing that has changed my life has been speaking to people within my chosen industry. I spent 2 hours with my mentor Richard Joseph and that was the turning point for me. The advice and comments he gave me were invaluable. Then again when I was introduced to Wayne from Adrem who are career consultants for the design industry. How can an advisor at the job centre have enough knowledge for every industry? It’s impossible.

Richard Joseph reviews Craig’s portfolio

Maybe successful people in key industries need to take a responsibility and get involved like my mentor Richard Joseph and Wayne Euston-Moore did? In total I have probably had 6 hours of professional advice. The cost of this can’t amount to 2 years of being on benefits. I don’t know what the answer is to our unemployment problem but I do know these are key questions that need answering, as the help you get at the job centre is non existent or pointless.

I also think more needs to be done for the people that are doing full time unpaid internships and work experience. I think little things like discounted travel or even a free travel card can make huge differences. Having to walk 8 miles a day to get to and from your internship because you cant afford the travel expenses can take its toll after a while. Being unable to buy meat or the correct foods can also take its toll after a while. Food stamps for those that are working for nothing should be considered. If this is something that the government is unwilling to consider then more needs to be done to put pressure on those companies that are using unpaid interns.

Even though my experience so far has been tough I have never been happier. I do miss my friends, family, the northern banter and a proper pasty and I may not have any money and I may look like a malnourished 12 year old boy but I have added an extra hole in my belt and I have a smile and a confident swagger as I now have a purpose in life and that is something you can not put a price on. To thank those people that have been involved with this program, not just my mentors but also the people behind the scenes working hard researching etc, I don’t think it would be sufficient to say ‘thank you’. My way of saying thank you to everyone involved is to work hard and actually make my dream of being a designer come true. I say dream, but it’s beginning to look more like reality now. This is just the beginning for me.

Month 4; Karen’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

Being involved with the show has been very beneficial and I feel I’ve achieved a lot over the past few months. I’ve done a lot of self evaluation and found some interesting things about the nature of job hunting.

Having a mentor such as Claire Young has definitely been a huge benefit. She’s given me some great, honest advice and criticisms over the last few months which has been refreshing. The best piece of advice I’ve had and will definitely tell people in the same situation as me is to get networking!

Over the past few months I’ve actually been invited to interviews whereas before, employers wouldn’t even give me the time of day let alone read the first line of my CV. In the past 2-3 months I’ve had 7 interviews for entry level and graduate positions and even though I wasn’t successful in securing the roles I’m still feeling content with myself and my abilities.

Karen and Craig at the BBC Radio 5 studios for the 2nd recording of the series – March 2012

Majority of the feedback I’ve had is that I lack experience (which if I’m honest, is starting to get a little tiring to hear because at least I do have some experience on my C.V). But, I am working on this and currently working with The Scarlet Life – a marketing communications and event management company that specialises in the sport, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle industries. I’ve only been with them a month and already I’ve composed a social media strategy for them, worked on client pitches, created a website brief and gained some on-site event experience at a charity gala managing VIP and celebrity guests, all of which, I hope, is giving me the experience future employers are looking for.

There’s an organisation out there that’s hoping to read the term ‘unemployed’ and change it to ‘employable’ and thanks to Claire’s mentorship and the opportunities this show has opened up to me, I’m beginning to have a more positive attitude and I’m actually starting to believe that I too, am ‘employable’. This, to me, feels like a milestone because confidence (or lack of) has been my biggest barrier to job hunting as it meant I was under selling myself and my abilities. This was something Peter Dodd picked up on a few months ago and it’s still something I need to improve on for interviews.

I wish mentor programmes were more widely available to young people and students as it’s helped me gain an insight into the world of work and opened up new career options for me. This kind of experience is crucial for young people making career decisions especially if the UK continues to have an unstable job market.

I’m definitely feeling a lot more positive about getting a job than I did back in February (I had pretty much lost hope in the UK job market back then and almost left the UK permanently, but my gut told me to give the UK one last chance). Being involved with the show has given me a new found confidence and an ambition and drive that I thought disappeared over the years has resurfaced again.

I’m still looking for a more stable and permanent role that will provide me with the foundations to a long term career and eventually fulfil some personal goals of mine. This journey has also made me think about freelancing. More thought needs to go into developing it but I might as well create a job for myself if no one else is going to give me one. It’ll be an even tougher battle but, as they say, the skies the limit.

Month 4; Danielle’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

This month hasn’t been the best for me. The work that I had is all coming to an end and I haven’t had any offers of more work. It’s so disheartening when things were going so well.

Apparently Job Centre Staff didn’t receive the memo on how the New Enterprise Allowance actually works. I went to the bank on my payday and it was empty, no NEA? Strange. So off I went to the local Job Centre, the first person I spoke to informed me that she wasn’t sure how the NEA worked and asked who was dealing with my claim. On telling her this she informed me that my adviser only worked part time and would be back in the following week and I could speak  to her then because no one else at the office really knew anything about NEA.

As irate as I was I agreed and left my contact details with her in the hope that someone would get back to me. It’s a little degrading to be made to feel like you are begging for the measly £33 allowance, but there I was. Luckily that afternoon my advisor rang back and informed me that she was infact FULL TIME now, it’s funny none of the other staff seemed to know.

She arranged for me to have an interview with her the following Friday and apologized.

Week 2 no money.

I attended the interview on the friday and was told everything was in order and I was told that my money should restart within three days. Three days came and went, still no money.

I called the Job Centre the following friday and got put through to a call handler who said that I was showing as employed on the system and therefore there was nothing he could do.

3 weeks without any NEA, I am starting to think that they intentionally make it as awkward as possible so no one tries to claim this allowance. It finally started again last week much to my amazement.

As for the rest of the month it hasn’t been the best, I really can’t carry on with the business as it is. I need to find a job so that I know I have a guaranteed wage at the end of every month, I have spent the last few weeks sending out CV after CV in the hope that someone will just reply, my covering letters are getting quirkier and quirkier in the hope that my CV will be more memorable than the other thousand on the employer’s desk. My most recent read:

“Fun Loving Vegetarian seeks retail position for clean and soapy fun” (For a well known Soap/ethical cosmetics firm)

Lets hope it made someone smile and maybe it will make them read my CV.

I have loved this experience on the radio show and can only thank everyone involved. Especially Rosemary Parr who has been my mentor through this whole process, she has been fantastic I have spoken to her nearly every week, even when we haven’t been on air. She has given up her spare time to help me anyway she can.

Danielle meets her mentor Rosemary Parr

I intend to keep the business open and trading but I need a full time job in the meantime a guaranteed wage just incase the business doesn’t take off.

I am going to keep my options open, keep trying to find a Supervising Solicitor and in the meantime keep sending CV’s and keep hoping that at some point I will get a call back for an interview.

I’m also hoping that lessons will be learnt by the Job Centre and those disgruntled civil servants will receive the necessary training to make NEA an effective scheme. We’ll see…………………………

Thanks to everyone who’s followed

Month 4; Richie’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

Over the past few months I’ve been involved in the Radio 5 live Drive on unemployment. I’ve been out of work now for around 11 -12 months. I have applied for a lot of jobs and have had no luck or even a reply. Radio 5 live introduced me to my mentor for the show Tristram Mayhew founder of Go Ape. I met Tristram at Matfen Hall where there is a Go Ape course. I spoke with him about how I’ve dealt with being unemployed and how I’ve been trying to get back into work. Tristram gave me a lot of good advice and was very open and honest with me on where I need to improve on if I want to stand out in getting a job or career in the Outdoors. He helped me realise that just sending application forms off for work wasn’t always the best option and that I need to make myself stand out by directly contacting possible employers. I have taken on a lot of Tristram’s advice and tried to use it to my benefit.

Richie, Karen and Craig at BBC Radio 5 studios, Media City UK Salford

Spanish unemployed teacher moves to Manchester #NOISEyoungnjobless

My name is Javier and I’m in my thirties. I left Spain three weeks ago because in my country there isn’t work, there isn’t a future.

I have a degree in History of Arts, a Postgraduate Course on Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and  a handful of more qualifications. I speak Spanish and  Catalan and I can manage in French and English. So what? There is no work [in Spain] even as a kitchen porter. So after two years unemployed, hanging around, I made up my mind and I took a plane to Manchester. Why Manchester?  London is too expensive. So it was Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool…  I didn’t care.

Now I keep looking for a job. Of course I’d like to find a position as a Spanish Teacher but I don’t mind, I’m looking for ANY job. At least I could practice my English and earn some money. But things are also difficult here. There are a lot of Spaniards who want to find a job and it’s hard work to understand English by phone, especially Mancunian accent. At the moment I’m giving some Spanish private lessons but it’s not enough to survive. If I don’t find anything I will have to go back to Spain,  but to doing what? There’s nothing to do if you don’t have a job.

In the meantime you can see how the biggest companies and banks are getting fat, and you think: this is  not a crisis, this is a f**** fraud.

Month 3; Craig’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

It’s been a month since my last blog and it seems like yesterday. So much has happened within the last 4 weeks.

 

Soon after the last live broadcast I travelled down to London to see Wayne Euston-Moore at Adrem who are a creative career consultancy designed specifically for architecture, design and the digital industries. We sat down in a really cool minimalistic meeting room,   which had floor to ceiling glass panes which doubled as doors. I had almost 2 hours of his time and I didn’t feel rushed, we spent time discussing each element of my CV and folio. There was a huge improvement from the first attempt but I still had a lot of work to do on it.

 

We also talked about what direction I should take and he suggested to head towards being an editorial designer, this would be working for a magazine and designing the layout. This is definitely a position I would love to have! There are way too many things to list that we talked about as I took so much from the meeting. Not just information and facts but confidence. I can’t thank him enough as his advice was invaluable.

 

That same day I spent hunting around London for rooms to rent. j-me original design, based in London, had offered me some work experience with them earlier that week via my mentor Richard Joseph. I was feeling confident and thought what the heck I’ve got nothing to lose. I couldn’t refuse this opportunity so signed a contract for a room that night. I moved in a week later…

 

I’m now in my second week of being a resident of London, it’s been tougher than I thought if I am going to be honest. Everything is different from Manchester, I think northerners are a little bit more chilled. It’s weird because I never thought it was possible to be lonely in a huge city like London but you could walk past a thousand people down here and not one will speak. They’re all going in their own direction and they don’t say sorry if they bump into you. It’s like you don’t exist sometimes but I am quickly learning how things are done down here. ‘Don’t txt and walk at peak times’ ‘Don’t take things to heart’ ‘Squeeze on that tube because the next ones just as full’ ‘Get an Oyster card’ ‘Purchase a tube app’ ‘use google maps for everything’.

 

I now have a completed 30 page CV and folio, found myself some unpaid work with a new magazine, ‘Oath’ to be launched next month, met up with Sarah Farrari who runs Spindle Magazine and had advice and tips from her. I’m trying to network like crazy but it’s hard when you have no money to go anywhere. As soon as I get some spare cash I need to print some business cards. I still have a mountain to climb but for once in my life I have some direction and I am feeling confident in my abilities as a designer.

 

In between moving to London and learning the southern ways I had the opportunity to go back to Manchester and meet Javi who is a Spanish lad that has moved to my home city to try and find work as a teacher. We spoke about the economy in Spain, their new government and reforms and the effect it’s having on the people. This was a huge eye opener for me. I had seen vague reports on the news about Spain but I didn’t know they had a 24% unemployment rate and things are getting worse for them. It sounded like they were having the same problems as us in England but theirs seems to be on a much larger scale. It was nice to hear that the Spanish help each other out and they are very family orientated and hard times like we are in has made those ties and morals even stronger. The time I spent with Javi was a huge eye opener, I questioned, is this what’s to come for us in the UK?

 

Who can tell what the future holds but I think more needs to be done by our Governments. We need to look at places like Holland and look at why they have a low unemployment rate. We need to stop experimenting with ways to get the economy going again and learn lessons from those that are working. We need to manufacture more products within the UK instead of importing them. We as consumers need to fully understand the consequences of our buying actions. Banks need to be tightly regulated so that this can never happen again.

I can’t understand how the government can get away with squandering our money away? How can a group of people take money from us to run our country and then get us into debt? I don’t remember signing for a loan? Do you?

We all need to educate ourselves more on how our country is run. We need to fully understand where and why our paid taxes are being spent. We also need to take a greater interest on our monetary system, how money is made and circulated. It’s a crying shame that tomorrows generation are being born into a debt riddled society. It’s nothing more than modern day slavery. Each and every one of us is responsible for the state of our economy. It’s easy to blame someone or something but if we collectively educated ourselves and took responsibility for our actions we could empower a better future.

 

I have learned a lot within the past few months and I am determined to use this opportunity to the full. Who knows where ill be in another 3 months but I have my confidence back and I am keeping myself upbeat and optimistic about my future. I’ve come so far but still have a long way to go and I wouldn’t be at this point without the help of Vic Turnbull and the team at NoiseFestival.com and Jo Meek from Wise Buddah. Thank you. x

 

Month 3; Danielle’s thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

Well we have a lot to catch up……..
I was left pretty dejected after the last radio show, I didn’t feel I come over all that well and was pretty flummoxed when it came to being put on the spot about pricing.
Trying to explain pricing of this product is pretty difficult because it is governed by a lot of different factors for example mural size, the time it would take, materials I really need to see the space or at least have the size of the space as a guide so being asked on a radio show a price was pretty hard to gauge.
After the show it got me to thinking that I may have bitten off more than I could chew and that maybe it wasn’t a good idea with the economic climate the way it is to be trying to start up a new business. It also worried me that I seemed to be putting all my eggs in one basket, so at the start of the month I set about putting applications in for different jobs from KFC to the RSPCA. I began to panic that soon my New Enterprise Allowance would drop to half and I wouldn’t be able to keep going without at least a part-time job.
But fate stepped in and gave a helping hand……………….
Just as I had resigned myself to the fact that my business was going to be a non-starter I got my first call from the local school who were wanting a mural for the computer room/library. This mural consists of 20 canvas paintings making up a timeline. This stretches from the Big Bang to present day. I finally have my first paying commission. This gave me a great confidence boost; finally I knew that there was a market for my business. I called the local community centre back to see how they were getting on……

And that gave me my second mural. The local Community Centre wanted the mural finished for their communal garden. I’ve spent the second week of the Easter Holidays completing it with the help of everyone in the community centre. It was a fantastic experience and has given me an even bigger confidence boost, the people that I worked with were great and here were some fantastic artists involved, it’s going to look beautiful in the communal garden. They also managed to pay me what they could, which was really appreciated. They are also putting my name forward for further art projects within the local community, I’m dropping some business cards in next week.
So on the business side of things It’s going great I just hope it carries on, even if I get one a month it’s an amazing feeling being able to work for yourself and know that it’s your business and it’s your hard work. It is also such a joy to do something you love to do for a living. Fingers crossed in 6 months time I’ll still be here painting murals.
In between doing the two murals, (which both started the same week) I also recorded a phone call for the next radio show which I spoke to a lovely German guy called Lion (Le-on) The idea behind the call was discuss Germany’s situation because they have a much lower unemployment rate.
From what I could gather in the phone call Germany have mini jobs, where you can earn up to 400 euros per month tax free from a job and you can have many mini jobs that run alongside each other. From talking to Lion, these are really helpful for gaining much needed experience in the work place and earning at the same time.
I think this is a workable scheme in Britain, we could choose certain job sectors such as bar/waiting staff and make these jobs part time only where by people could work say 16 hours a week in these rolls but no more, within a full time job you could employ 3 people within the role where normally there would only be one. The unemployment figures would look better, business’ would not have to pay NI and Tax because of the low hours worked by each person, it would also employ 3 people for every one role. I do wonder if it would be a false economy but at the same time this system has worked in Germany, maybe it’s worth giving this a go. What do we have to lose with unemployment figures at their worst for years?

I think and hope that from what we have touched on through this series of radio shows the Government can take something from it, there are so many people in the UK working so hard to find work but looking at it at its most basic we don’t have enough jobs for the people we have unemployed. We have a recession where everyone is tightening their belts and we also have local high streets that are disappearing by the day, every day in the news we hear of a different business going into administration, I don’t know if this is fixable, I think it’s a case of riding this one out. I do think the Government need to look at better ways to help us as a whole because right now it isn’t working our unemployment figures are just rising.
I also hope that more people will learn about the New Enterprise Scheme and It’s more widely advertised within the local Job Centre’s, someone might just have an idea like I had, and maybe with the help of the scheme they could start their own business.
Fingers crossed for the future.

Month 3; Karen’s Thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

A lot has happened since I was last on air; I’ve had interviews to prepare for, researched networking groups, started some work with The Scarlet Life – a motorsport, fashion and lifestyle marketing company, and revisited my thoughts on permanently moving to Hong Kong to find work.

Last time, I mentioned I had an interview coming up. How did it go? Well, unfortunately I didn’t get the job as I lacked client facing experience (it was for an assistant consultant role), which for the nature of the position is completely understandable. However, the feedback I received was very positive. The interviewers really liked me, were thoroughly impressed with my presentation and thought my interview performance was great.

Since then, I’ve had a couple more interviews which I’m still waiting to hear back from so fingers crossed!

I’ve also spoken to my friend Martin about his experiences of job hunting in Hong Kong. He moved there a year ago after not having any luck in the UK job market either. Since he’s been in Hong Kong he’s had two jobs and now looking to set up a business. He’s also found that it’s not just British graduates making the move over there, but graduates from around the world including America and Canada… Am I missing out on something?

I’ve given myself a deadline for getting a job in the UK. If I don’t get anything full time by October 2012 I’m getting on a plane and leaving. I’ve always dreamt of having a job that involved international travel and if those prospects aren’t looking good, I might as well go internationally for a job instead.

In the mean time, I’ve got work with The Scarlet Life to help me towards reaching my goal. So far I’ve done some social media work with them, created a web brief for an upcoming project and talked strategy. There’s more to come and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it as I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

Month 2: Richie’s Thoughts #NOISEyoungnjobless

Over the past month I have been fortunate enough to be put in touch with my mentor Tristram. I met up with him at the Go Ape course at Matfen Hall where we had a good chat about myself and also about what he’s achieved. Tristram gave me some really good advice about how to best pursue the career I’m looking for. He told me the best ways to get noticed from potential employers and how to go about doing that.

I was abit wary when I was going to meet tristram and nervous at the same time. I wasn’t sure what to expect from my meeting with him and his site manager Barry. I am really pleased to have been giving the opportunity to have met both of them and have learned a lot from them. Myself and Tristram tackled the Go Ape course and had a good chat on the way around about where I am in trying to pursue my career. I also talked to Dave (an employee at Go Ape) who gave me lots of advice about how he got into his job and a lot of information about potential courses.

Following from the meeting with Tristram and Barry I have taken on some of their advice and have approached a few companies on trying to get some work experience with them before I go away to volunteer at the end of April.

Richie Mole, 19 from Newcastle. Unemployed on JobSeekers Allowance, but in training

Over the next three months, live on BBC Radio 5live we’ll here from 4 young people who are all unemployed and facing different barriers to getting into work – as part of our NOISE Young and Jobless series. Their mentors will guide their journey and offer unique advice to get them into work.
For more details about this NOISE Festival.com/ Wise Buddah co-production get over here www.NOISEfestival.com/youngandjobless
#NOISEyoungnjobless