Eric, Making The Leap Fellow
I graduated university with a lower second class honour – not quite what I had planned for. A module in my final exams caught me off guard and I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was, bringing the average down. Missing out on my target by less than two percentage points was devastating. I had made plans and applications that required an upper second or higher so I had to start over somewhat.
When I started to apply for jobs the summer after graduating, I was applying for a bunch of jobs that I didn’t necessarily want. They were happy to take lower seconds class graduates so I put in an effort to apply. However, my technique for the application forms, CV’s and cover letters wasn’t very good and I wasn’t getting very far.
All in all, I was at a really low point where I felt lost and was severely lacking confidence in myself.
One day the job centre in Wembley referred me to Making The Leap and that was the turning point for me. I first came to the office in Kensal Green to meet with Jamal and he told me more about the ACE Workshop programme, after which I applied for the October workshop sessions. The ACE workshop is a three-week long course that provides young adults with the soft skills essential for acquiring a job, maintaining it and progressing.
On the Workshop I met an amazing bunch of Associates – now Fellows like myself – and throughout the whole course I gained a lot of confidence in myself and my abilities, as well as the crucial soft skills needed to progress and be successful in my job applications. They taught me that the path is not always straight-forward but also helped me rediscover my passion!
Eric and his cohort of ACE Workshop Fellows
My ambition is to work for the NHS in a financial capacity and I am currently working as an Assistant Technical Officer in Aseptics at Northwick Park Hospital, but I am very excited to soon become an Assistant Management Accountant for King’s College Hospital. I genuinely wouldn’t be here if it was not for my time at Making The Leap.
The whole Making The Leap team put your best interests at the forefront of everything they do. Every single task has a purpose to aid your personal and professional development. It is all to prepare you for working life and I am so thankful and grateful for everything they have done, and still are doing, for me. They are always there keeping an eye out and checking up on me which means a lot. They aren’t just a social mobility charity that run an employability and soft skills course, they are a family.
By Eric, aged 22
