Thomas Pickles is a History graduate from Nottingham Trent University. He previously secured a flooring job for 9 months but required further support. He discovered Autism Plus for the first time when he met Suzanne, our Head of Service at Sheffield United football ground job fair.
Thomas attended his first appointment with Autism Plus in January this year. He was unemployed, struggling with anxiety and unsure how to manage his neuro-diverse condition.
One of his main barriers was filling in application forms. Thomas was interested in working for the civil service but found their application forms complex and difficult to understand.
An Autism Internship opportunity came up which Thomas was very interested in. Thomas thought this presented a fabulous opportunity to learn and experience what it is like to be in a civil service role. We are delighted to say Thomas has now secured his internship and is looking forward to gaining valuable experience in his role.
“We immensely proud that Thomas has secured the civil service internship. Thomas has always been resilient, adaptive and determined to follow on his dream.”
Alongside his internship Thomas has been working as a Building Assistant with Sheffield Hallam’s Student Union. He will relinquish this role when the internship starts but he has gained some fantastic experience from this role which will hopefully benefit him in his apprenticeship moving forward.
Our SEND Youth Hub supported Thomas with understanding and completing forms. I helped Thomas understand the different sections of an application form; how to list qualifications and previous employment in reverse order and the importance of accounting for gaps in CV and application forms. We went through typical interview questions with Thomas and focused on behavioural type questions. We also arranged for Thomas to take part in a mock interview with an external interviewer.
Thomas had an online interview for immigration role which he was quite anxious about. We assured him that getting to the interview was testimony of the skills he has. Before applying for the internship, we spent time with Thomas reading and listening to testimonials and recordings from previous internship participants. This gave Thomas a good idea of what to expect and motivated him immensely.
Thomas was disappointed not to proceed beyond stage 4 of the immigration job. However, we supported Thomas to focus on the positives. Our team then helped him recognise the progress in getting that far and encouraged him to build on this achievement for the future, which is what happened for the Civil Service Internship.
“I have learnt so much from this experience. I am aware of and more confident in what I want to do and how to apply for opportunities. I am excited about starting my new job and witnessing first hand how the civil service operates. I hope this will be a massive step for me in having a long career with the civil service”
The overall outcome from this support was the improved sense of self belief for Thomas. He began to work out how he could reverse setbacks and use them for achieve better things. He secured the Autism internship with civil service. At the same time, he attended an interview at Hallam Students Union as a Building assistant – he secured the position. He is exuding confidence, and the successes have significantly improved his mental health, self esteem and wellbeing.
To find our more about the support our SEND Youth Hub can help please look at the link below
