Eryk is a young person currently living with St Basils in Solihull, after being forced to flee his home. Eryk is Polish and even though he grew up and studied at University in this country, has no recourse to public funds. With the help of Phil Bradley and the support team in Solihull and Kash Munroe, our Partnerships and Progression officer, he has been assisted by St Basils with interview skills and a grant to cover basic expenses, plus a generous offer from Facilities Management recruitment company Boden Resource, means he has now secured a full time paid role on an ongoing basis.
We caught up with Eryk as well as two of his colleagues, Talent Manager Katie O’Cleary and Marketing Executive Sherrel Solomon, at their swish offices in Marston Green to see how it’s all going.
The company: Boden Resource’s response
As soon as I entered the Boden Resource board room and met with Eryk’s smiling colleagues, I knew it was all going well!
Sherrel Solomon said: “Eryk has really settled in well. He gets involved in all the office banter and everyone really likes him, no complaints at all.”
We asked how Eryk came to work at Boden Resource, Katie from Boden Resource said:
“We had a need for an Administrator to clean up our database which is an important job as it involves handling confidential information. We thought we’d try St Basils first”.
“Eryk’s CV was really fantastic – to be honest, we were really shocked….You don’t expect someone with a Law degree to be homeless”.
“He definitely has the right attitude, seems grateful for the opportunity and he seems to be enjoying the role”.
Eryk’s response
Eryk said of this opportunity, which is his first job following completing a Law degree at Bristol University: “It’s really fun, all the people are really nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect of my first job, but this is great!”
“The job is an administrative position and doing research to update the database and make sure we’ve got the most up to date contacts for everyone. Boden Resource regularly send out job opportunities and promotional emails to their clients and if the database isn’t correct their clients won’t receive the email, so it is important it’s up to date. This role has given me both analytical skills and helped me with my attention to detail.”
“I definitely feel my confidence has increased over the last few weeks, in the first week I wasn’t confident in speaking to anyone but I’m much more myself now. Work has made things so much better than before.”
“The hardest thing was just getting into the routine. Getting up at 6am everyday and putting on a suit. It’s not what I’m used to!”
“But working here has been great – I’d recommend it to anyone. I’m really thankful to Boden Resource for the opportunity, Phil Bradley my support worker for all the help he’s given me and for referring me, and Kash for her help getting me this opportunity”.
“If I wasn’t here I’d be asleep, yes just sleeping through my days. It sounds chilled but actually this is much better.”
“St Basils and this opportunity at Boden Resource has definitely helped me get back on track, feel calmer and more focused and in control of my life”
“I feel like I’m getting a lot of good experience here and transferable skills and after this opportunity I would still like to do something with my Law degree so my next steps will be trying to get a graduate position somewhere in a Law firm”.
“I’d definitely recommend this to other young people at St Basils. The staff are there to help you, you just need to ask them!”
St Basils’ response
Kash Munroe, St Basils Partnerships and Progression Officer said:
“I’m really pleased with how it’s all going. Companies are often surprised by the skills and attitudes of our some of our young residents, and I definitely have a few more young people on my books that have the right skills and attitudes, just like Eryk, that just need a local company to take a chance on them and offer them an opportunity, which initially could just be work experience for a week or two. Honestly they just need that one shot.”
We need more local companies on board!
St Basils are always looking for companies who are willing to offer their expertise through CV workshops, Interview skills workshops and mock interviews as well as potentially offering work experience placements or job opportunities to our young people. If your company can help please email Kash via Kashimar.Munroe@stbasils.org.uk or call mobile: 07850 310994.
If you would like to formally partner with St Basils like Boden Resource did, please see our Business Partnerships page for all the benefits this can bring your company!