Ian Rowlands our Employability Coordinator, has been working closely with Arjun and helping with his work experience placement at Fairhive. Here, he tells us how it went:
“Last month, Arjun’s three week work experience placement with our friends at Fairhive came to an end.
“I attended a review meeting with Arjun, Matthew Dewberry (who had been Arjun’s mentor during the placement) and Rick Smith, Head of IT. Both Matthew and Rick were absolutely glowing in their feedback, with Matthew saying if he was marking Arjun out of 10, he would give him a full 10!
“During his three weeks at Fairhive, he had undertaken a range of tasks, such as creating ‘How to’ videos for Fairhive employees, fixing laptops and helping to deal with other IT issues. Matthew said Arjun had just got on with any task he had been given, politely requested help when required and had been a real asset to the team. So much so, that both Matthew and Rick said that they would be more than happy to have him back for a longer work placement next year!
“Arjun will have a discussion with his parents and hopefully we can then put a plan in place for him to continue his great work in 2024!”
Who are Fairhive?
Fairhive is a not for profit provider of social housing that prides itself on being a certified Level 3 Disability Confident Leader. They are the third business to achieve this in Buckinghamshire and only the eighth Housing Association nationally. They are committed to doing even more to support individuals working at Fairhive with disabilities and ensuring they keep their Level 3 Disability Confident Leader status. You can find out more about them here.
We have a close working relationship with Fairhive and they have offered different types of work placements, to many of our members. They are keen to promote their work as a Disability Confident Leader and we have collaborated with them to address the UK’s disability employment gap locally. You can listen to a recent podcast from their Assistant Director of People, John Wallbank, talking about this here.
The feedback from Fairhive about Arjun was wonderful!
Rick Smith, Head of IT at Fairhive commented: “Our long term partnership with Talkback is so important as a Disability Confident Leader and we want to do everything we can to offer opportunities to people with learning disabilities and autism. Most recently, it was fantastic having Arjun join my IT team on work experience.
“In his time with us, Arjun was involved in many things including creating video guides, resolving printing and display issues at our Independent Living Schemes, helping us recycle old equipment and researching new equipment to meet our requirements. The Video Guides he made for our new Intranet were excellent. He fitted into the team so well, worked hard and always had a smile on his face. He was a fantastic addition to our team and we all wish him every success for the future.”
Well done Arjun! We can’t wait to see what you do next!
