Preparation into Employment (PIE)
Half-way through the PIE project, funded by Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Prize Challenge, we are delighted to be starting to see real outcomes for candidates taking part.
The partnership project between Carers Trust Cambridgeshire, Axiom Crossroads Care and Axiom Housing Association has seen 46 people engage with the project. The aim of PIE is to enable family carers (including former family carers) and homeless people to get back into employment by supporting them with skills, qualifications and work experience.
10 people are going through work experience ranging from fitness to customer services to social care.
“I’m 19, I’ve done Maths, English and Customer Services Level 2 which was interesting. Work experience helped me to understand how to deal with various customer situations and gave me tips how to conduct myself and prepare for interviews.”
PIE candidate
Joe’s Story
Name: Joe
Age: 24
Situation: Homeless (Peterborough Foyer)
Joe has been in and out of the Foyer for years. When PIE was introduced, he was disengaged and uncommunicative.
For several weeks, PIE tried to forge the relationship, gain trust and find out about his passions/career aspirations, however unattainable they might seem. Joe was never on time for training (if he came at all) and never attended PIE drop-ins.
PIE discovered a health and fitness project delivered by the YMCA via a gym, who agreed to provide work experience for PIE. Joe heard about this and approached us as he had thought about becoming a fitness instructor, had achieved Karate black belt and helped run classes when he was younger.
Joe has now committed to 100 hours work experience with the gym. Since identifying a realistic job/career pathway, Joe is engaged and motivated. He is helping PIE to apply to run a L2 fitness instructor course, including presenting to a panel.
Without PIE, Joe would not be taking his first steps into a promising career. He has told us he feels better about himself and, through PIE, will continue to build his confidence to feel ready for work.
