Getting the confidence and courage back

Natasha needed to restart her career after being unemployed for over a year. She was planning the big move across the ditch to Australia because she had lost many people in her life and she felt she had no life here in New Zealand.

Then she heard about Preparation for Work.

The short, focussed three-week training course offered her a much-needed refresher on what employers were looking for, and identified all the strengths and skills she had to offer.

Soon after doing the course Natasha got her forklift licence, and with the help of the Chamber team secured an interview.

“The most helpful thing for me was my CV. If you guys hadn’t helped me update my CV, I wouldn’t have gotten that interview.”

And Natasha also got her courage and confidence back.

Her shyness was one of her biggest barriers, but by talking with the Preparation for Work team and fellow candidates she learned to be OK outside of her comfort-zone. “Being on this course built my confidence so I can actually communicate with other people in the room. I’ve learned to be open.”

So much so that just a week into her new job Natasha spoke up when a supervisor addressed the team as ‘guys’.

“I turned around and said, there are guys and girls here.”

It was the first time someone had pointed that out to him, and both he and Natasha’s manager were proud of her courage for doing so. When Natasha’s co-workers asked her where she got her courage from, she replied, “that’s from my course.”

Preparation for Work helped Natasha build a new beginning, and with her new job, new confidence and new excitement for life, home is right here in New Zealand.