Intern Reece Rocks His New Hospital Job
A Supported Internship transformed Reece from a shy student to a bubbly, team player with a paid job at Stepping Hill Hospital: Nice work Reece!
This has been such a challenging year for anyone looking for work, but Reece aced it!
What a result for a young man who just months earlier, in September 2020, had shyly entered the Internship training room for the very first time.
Camaraderie Counts
Supported Internships are just as much about developing confidence as building experience. At each of our dozen internship sites, daily teamwork in the training room helps nurture friendships and social skills. Our Stockport programme is hosted by our great partners at Stepping Hill Hospital.
Interns support one another and share individual work placement experiences in an informal setting.
This is one area where Reece soon demonstrated a talent. Everyone loved his entertaining tales of the tasks he’d enjoyed – and those he did not. Setting out patient breakfast trays was good; emptying the contents of used plates ready for the dishwasher, less so! Having such a supportive audience did much to nurture his self-confidence and bring him out of himself.
As so often happens, the interns became a solid group, and they meet up outside the programme to just hang out or go shopping.
Needless to say, there is plenty of training in the training room too! It’s provided by our great partners Cheadle and Marple College Network and focuses on acquiring a wide range of employability skills such as time-keeping and correct behaviours at work and CV building.
Skill Building On Placement.
On work placements more practical work skills are nurtured. We aim to offer each intern three work placements of around 10 weeks. The pandemic has had a marked negative effect on this. However, the perseverance of Pure Employment Officer, Daljet Singh and the support of Stepping Hill staff, secured two placements for Reece.
Reece, cleaning the kitchen conveyor belt with colleague Maisie Lawler, who showed him the ropes.
Catering Porter
The lively and supportive Catering Porters team welcomed Reece into their midst on his first placement. They quickly set him at ease and with the added support of a job coach, he was soon picking up new skills.
His varied roles included:
- plating up patient meals
- setting out cereals for patients’ breakfasts
- loading meals on trolleys
- taking trolleys to and from wards
- unloading stock deliveries and putting them away in the kitchen stores
Reece had struggled academically at school and college but when shown tasks to do, he picks them up very quickly. He learns by doing. Reece really enjoyed his placement and fitted in so well with the team. He didn’t realise quite how much at the time.
On his second placement, Reece gained even more valuable experience. This time he was with the hospital Domestics team where he also did well. However, when a job was advertised with the Catering Porters, he was keen to apply. He’d missed them! And as it turned out, they’d missed him too!
Reece was invited for an interview and to his great delight, he got the job!
When I first started at the internship I was really nervous but when I attended daily it got easier and I started to make friends.
Reece
I started to gain my confidence in talking to people. My first placement was the catering assistant. I really liked working there and now I've gained a part-time job there to which was really good and I am really happy about that.
This has boosted my confidence and given me hope and makes me feel valued as a person as I am being paid for a job. My team and Manager Duncan are very supportive and always encourage me.
Now when he is out and about in the hospital, Reece – formerly so shy – loves interacting with visitors who ask the way to various departments. We send our warm congratulations to you Reece, on your well-deserved success.
Good News in Difficult Times
We are living in such difficult times, making Reece’s achievement all the more impressive. We extend our warm thanks to all at Stepping Hill and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, who have been so supportive in ensuring this capable and enthusiastic young man achieved his goal of paid employment.
Supported Internships work!