Brian's Story

Hi, I’m Brian and I’m from Bedfordshire. I am going to tell you about how I became NEET and how TCHC helped me get through it.

My mother had died five years earlier and was still recovering from the grief of her death. I had been living with my grandparents who had been doing their best to support me, but I was finding life really hard. I turned my back on education because I found it really useless but started to feel like I was wasting my life.

I was referred onto the Youth Contract by the Hub, a youth organisation in my local area. I heard that TCHC had had much success in running the project and had developed an excellent reputation for working with and supporting young people.

I met Natalie Arculli, a Personal Adviser at TCHC, who rang me up to offer me her support. At my first meeting with Natalie we talked about how I became NEET and we discussed my future: my dreams, aspirations and goals. It was not long in conversation with her that I started to realise my love for customer-focused work.

Thanks to Natalie’s support, I was able to find some work experience in a hotel which gave me a lot of confidence, and I decided that I wanted to get an apprenticeship.

As the interview approached, Natalie gave me plenty of encouragement and advice on what to wear and how to prepare. When I got two apprenticeship interviews, she met with me to go through interview questions that the interviewer might ask.

I found her whole approach and attitude extremely comforting and this has made a huge difference to my life. Without Natalie’s support I would probably have continued to go from place to place to get help, and I certainly would not have got two interviews.

I could not have achieved all that I have achieved in the last few months without the support of TCHC! Above all, I liked the fact that Natalie called me up all the time, it made me think that someone cared.

Since taking part in the project I have managed to get work experience and I have built my confidence at interview so that I can eventually get an apprenticeship. Thanks to the support I received, I have managed to find work and I am really grateful to TCHC for this!