I’m leading LDN London’s new Pathway to Work programme. This is a month of free training, which prepares people to be a support worker and introduces you to LDN London’s services.
I wish this kind of programme had been an opportunity when I started. It would have made life ten times easier. I began as a support worker in 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. I was studying a business course at university and needed to earn some more money. I really wanted to do a job where I was helping people though – my heart wasn’t in business – and so started out as a care worker at another organisation, before moving to LDN London.
Like most people I didn’t know much about learning disabilities to begin with. But when I got some experience, I became passionate about helping people with a learning disability. I want to give that to more people.
I understand that people will have anxieties about whether they can do the job. Perhaps they’ve been rejected because they haven’t got experience. I’m a firm believer that: How do you expect people to have experience if you don’t give them the opportunity to? They shouldn’t have to jump through lots of hoops.
This kind of programme would have eased my anxiety.The whole point is you will be supported throughout. If you’re going into a role where you’re supporting people day in day out, I think you should also be getting lots of support too.
I work in recruitment now and I know some people would have been great as a support worker, but they just missed the mark. I have people in mind – I remember their names – that would have been amazing. They just needed a little bit more experience and training first. I worry about the few people where this knocked their confidence, but they would have done great because they have the right values, but they’re now scared to try again.
I was a completely different person when I started.This job doesn’t just help your career. You grow as a person. I’ve struggled with anxiety and my self-confidence, but this job has helped a lot. I can talk to new people now without it stressing the hell out of me! I’m a support worker, but the people I help have supported me more than I can ever express to them and I could have ever done for them.
This job pushes you to develop yourself. We help the people we support to get every opportunity they can. We show there’s no limits to what they can reach. If they want it, we will find a way to get there. Because you’re doing that for the people you support it teaches you to do that for yourself as well.
The connections you make are what I appreciate the most. Everything you do is for the wellbeing of each other and the people that you support. To be able to have that as what you do day-to-day is amazing. Everything else comes and goes, but at the end of the day we are social beings, we need each other. Being a support worker keeps reminding you of that.”
