This month Ranil Jayawardena MP popped into H&M Basingstoke to visit Tanzie, who works at the store. Tanzie said: ‘I love my job at H&M. It was good to meet my MP Ranil to tell him about the work I do. I liked being on the till and talking to him.’
Tanzie was supported into her role by our WorkFit programme. We’re so grateful to the whole H&M team who have supported several employment opportunities like Tanzie’s in their stores and we look forward to expanding the partnership going forward.
Hear from Jennagh Delaney, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at the Gym Group in this interesting episode of The Virtuous Mindset by Shivani Shah: https://loom.ly/IwkrRAU
Jennagh speaks about the Inclusive Traineeship that was set up in partnership with our WorkFit programme, to offer work experience opportunities to people who have Down’s syndrome within their gyms, also providing the support to achieve industry recognised qualifications for working in health and fitness.
Jennagh said, ‘I wanted to give them that entry level experience, so they got the exposure, they got to be a personal trainer for 10 weeks, but they also got to walk away with a qualification that started them on that journey if they wanted to continue it.’
Well done to all our WorkFit candidates who have been part of this scheme so far!
We were very pleased to meet with members of the Department of Health and Social Care team working on the implementation of the Down Syndrome Act in Westminster.
They heard from James and Safiya (pictured here with WorkFit Officer Lydia), two of our WorkFit candidates based in Parliament, who told them about their experiences of employment, and spoke to the DSA team about our wide range of work supporting people with Down’s syndrome.
There is still time to sign up to join us at our WorkFit Online National Conference on Tuesday 12 March 3-5pm.
This is an opportunity for our candidates, employers, families, professionals and supporters, to hear from some of our members about their experiences over the past year, and to celebrate lots of success.
Everyone is welcome – Sign up here.
Congratulations to Katherine, for being awarded the Securitas UK Country President Award, recognising the significant contribution she has made to Securitas UK in her role as a reception administrator.
Well done Katherine! What a great achievement.
Congratulations also to Philip, who was over the moon to be presented with the employee of the month award at Newcastle United Football Club. Philip started his role within the hospitality team with Sodexo in September last year, supported by our WorkFit programme.
He said ‘I am very happy and proud!’
George has recently celebrated his 1 year work anniversary as a kitchen assistant at Hilton London Kensington.
Hilton commented, ‘We are very proud of what George has achieved and it is great to have him as part of our team.’
Congratulations George!
And finally, well done Ben, who is also celebrating his 1 year anniversary working as a food and beverage assistant at Center Parcs, Woburn. He said ‘I’m loving working here and here’s to the next 12 months.‘
Thank you to all of our employers for their continued support of our WorkFit programme, and good luck to everyone starting new roles this month.
To find out more about WorkFit and how we support people who have Down’s syndrome to access meaningful work opportunities that can benefit the rest of their lives, please contact the team on 0333 12 12 300 or email us on dsworkfit@downs-syndrome.org.uk For more information visit the WorkFit website: www.dsworkfit.org.uk