To demonstrate how important a job is Claire McCann describes how having a job has increased her son Seb’s confidence and led to two job offers.

Seb is autistic and when he was at school he wasn’t very confident and didn’t socialise with people he didn’t know.

In September 2017 he started his second year in foundation studies at Chesterfield College where he was offered an internship at Walton Hospital, part of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust. While he was there he was offered several different departments to work in to help him decide what he’d like to concentrate on. Because he is really interested in IT that was where he started and finished his internship.

Seb was lucky to be supported by a mentor called Carl Ramsdale who went above and beyond to support and develop his IT skills and confidence. One job he did was a project of making up back packs for various professionals, each of the 1400 bags included medical equipment and had to be asset marked and registered and each recipient recorded on a spreadsheet. This role showed how he can work on his own and as part of a team. He learnt about confidentially, time keeping and communicating with various professionals.

As the year continued, Seb’s confidence grew and when the internship was coming to an end, Carl and many others were so impressed with how he’d excelled himself, that Carl gave him the opportunity to be on the bank staff following the end of the internship.

Seb attended a safeguarding course and during the summer holiday, he worked two days a week where he learnt about confidentiality, being professional and dressing appropriately and what it was like to earn and spend his own money. Carl took Seb to various meetings where he had the confidence to introduce himself and talk a little about his experience.

Seb has developed into a confident young man, who has given two presentations to executive directors, managers and governors on the hospital board. He is the first student to have been offered a role on the bank staff and he is now an ambassador for students with a learning disability.

He has already been offered a job at Walton Hospital by two separate people once he finishes the six-year degree course he’s now doing.

As Carl has given Seb so much support, we were delighted to find out that he had been nominated for an unsung hero award. Carl didn’t just support Seb but me as well, keeping me informed through telephone calls and meetings with how Seb was developing and the work he was doing.

For me it just shows what people can accomplished with the right support and guidance.