Holly started at Little Gate Farm (LGF) when she was 19 years old. The work trainee program offers learning disabled & autistic adults the opportunity to gain new skills, work experience & to grow in confidence. 

The staff at the farm identified an appropriate job for Holly & in September 2015, she started in a care home in Bexhill as an ‘Activities Assistant’.  After six months, Holly was promoted to be a ‘Carer’ within the care home. Holly has worked in two different care homes for the same organisation since then & recently decided to try work experience at the Conquest Hospital to gain some new skills.

The NHS is currently working in partnership with LGF, offering some of our work trainees the opportunity to gain work experience at the Conquest Hospital within various departments. A representative from the NHS facilitated a training session at our LGF office for four work trainees & their job coaches.

Holly has enjoyed six weeks at the Conquest Hospital in the house keeping department.  She enjoyed working as part of a team & also displayed confidence, working on her own initiative.  She excelled herself whilst completing all the tasks required within the role & when a vacancy for a paid position was advertised on the NHS website, Holly didn’t hesitate in applying.

Filling out job applications & attending interviews can be quite tricky when you have a learning disability so LGF ensured that a job coach was there every step of the way, offering ‘person centred’ support.

Holly attended an interview & answered all the questions with confidence. Forty other people applied for the job & six other applicants had an interview.  She found out later that day that she has got the job & is over the moon!  Holly is excitedly waiting to hear when her start date is, but she knows she will be working twelve hours a week doing housekeeping in the Kipling Ward.

A job coach will offer support to Holly in the workplace when she begins her new job & then gradually step back until she is confident enough to work independently.

Holly is a loyal employee, she is a caring lady who has a great work ethic.  She is kind & conscientious in her work.  Little Gate Farm are super proud of her & all she has achieved!  Well done Holly, keep up the hard work!