I started my placement at YG in November 2014, working with Greg and the Prince’s Trust Team 171. I was so nervous when I first started because many of the Team were actually older than me, and I felt like I wouldn’t be accepted or respected. This wasn’t the case, as the young people turned out to be even more anxious than me! (However this soon changed when they found their feet!). I learnt how to build productive working relationships with staff and young people, which really helped me because it meant that I was then able to transfer my skills when working with young people other than my Team.

 

I really enjoyed residential, even though there were a few mishaps with cooking, and I didn’t wake up one night when the Team were being particularly loud! But I felt that I learnt a lot from this week too, especially about how to act in a professional way even though it was so cold, because it was important to keep the Team’s morale high and to keep them going.

 

Young Gloucestershire has been really supportive in my studies as well, and even though I went home for Christmas, when I came back I was able to get back into the routine of placement very quickly. This was important for me because it meant that I could get back to enjoying my time, working with young people.

I am now assisting on the HITZ programme with Gary which I also relish the challenge of, as it is a more sports based programme and I am not at all sporty! I was able to deliver a session on Values and Beliefs, which I got some great feedback from.

 

Working at YG has shown me that working with young people is what I really want to do, so thank you to everyone working for all their support and understanding!