This week, as always, has been a busy one, I can’t believe it is October and we only have two weeks left of this half-term! Time flies when you’re busy at work, as our Future Finders students know only too well.

This week, Edward has been preparing patient information packs for the Royal Oldham Hospital..but more on him next week! We start our blog this week with an update from Chloe, who is doing an AMAZING job at Tesco where she is already working independently on the tills! As you’ll see in this feature, Chloe is loved by her colleagues and has made a big impression! Over to you Chloe for your ‘A Day in the Life’…

A day in the life of Chloe
Tesco Greenfield

I am working at Tesco Greenfield as a sales assistant and I arrive to start work in the morning at 10am. I put all my belongings in the staff room and log on to my till ready to start the day..

After my break I am asked to help the shop floor staff with placing fresh produce onto the shelves..

From time to time I also help the staff to organise stock in the backroom..

I spend most of my time on the tills as this is my main job role on placement at Tesco, although I have had the opportunity to experience different roles to understand how the company works on a daily basis.

Due to how quickly I have mastered my daily tasks, I have been asked to continue my placement for an extra day on Fridays!

Here’s what the staff and customers have to say about me:

Staff member – ‘Chloe is fantastic, very bubbly, friendly and smiley. She is a valuable member of our team.’
Member of public -‘You wouldn’t know if she did not tell me that she is here only on work placement/work experience, she is doing a good job.’
Staff Member – ‘Chloe is very confident and has taken to all jobs given to her very quickly, she is brilliant!’

A couple of weeks ago we had a new job coach join our team, Bethany! Bethany is currently based at the Premier Inn and the Whitegate Inn with a number of our students, although she has news of another placement in her first update..

This week has seen another employer begin to support our young people into work. Age Uk in Uppermill have agreed to take Sebastian on a long term voluntary position. Here’s how his first day went..

I have been organising the books, checking the labels and putting the ones before a certain date in a bag ready for the ‘book man’ to come and take..

I helped tidy up the clothing room and arranged the displays..

We took the rare opportunity to sit out in the sun to have our dinner – eating lunch and watching the world go by..

But it wasn’t long before we were back in work, where Deborah had some more jobs for me to do. First of all she asked me to steam some of the clothes ready for the sale racks..

..before tagging the new clothes, writing the prices and the sizes on the labels..

..and putting sizes on the clothes hangers ready for them to be put out for sale on the shop floor..

It has been a busy first day here at Age Uk and I have loved every minute!

Our relationships with employers are really strong and, as you have seen, we have had feedback from Tesco employees and customers to say how well Chloe is doing on her placement! We have also been very busy in college this week too..

This week we have started working on our Health and Safety Unit. We have been looking at Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), looking at risk assessments, the reason we do them and we have also completed a ‘mock’ risk assessment, even working at height. We identified some of the Health and Safety signs and symbols, stating what they mean and understanding which industries we may find them in and the importance of following these signs.

Next week we will be carrying on with Health and Safety – keeping ourselves safe in work, working at height, looking at the Health and Safety within our placements and how it keeps us and who we work with safe.

Some of the group this week have also been helping to develop materials and resources for our display boards, making it a more enjoyable and informative learning environment. In English we have been looking at persuasive writing and how we can use our writing to persuade others.

Over the next couple of weeks, our job coaches will be in touch to arrange a meeting with all our families. We value the importance of communicating with families on a regular basis and these meetings will happen termly over the year. This is to ensure that we all sing from the same hymn sheet and we all strive towards the same outcomes for our students! Anne-Marie, Colin or Bethany will be in touch soon.

Next week we have our first Medtia Council meeting where Future Finders will be represented by Gary. I look forward to feeding back to you all on how the meeting goes.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Daniel
Director of Employment & Co Head of Site at Medtia Square

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham