East Ayrshire Carers Centre is using 14:19 Fund investment to work with young carers who don’t attend school regularly or who leave school with no qualifications. One of the young people they have supported recently is Fraser, who cares for his mother who is affected by mobility problems.
He became involved with East Ayrshire Carers Centre as a young carer in 2007. In September 2009, having completed an HND in accounting, he found himself unemployed and not accepted onto a degree course in accounting. At this point Fraser had no plan and was very uncertain about his future, so registered with the centre’s Alpha Venture course.
"I am very comfortable working with figures, so decided I would like to use this to do voluntary work at the centre," said Fraser. "This worked well and I spent half a day a week helping the admin officer, and also did half a day a week doing voluntary work at the local credit union. In October last year I got to go on a Leadership Academy at Columba 1400, and this really helped my confidence. Then I took part in a one day first aid course, and earlier this year went on a week long trip with Ocean Youth Trust. These have all been great experiences, and have really helped me focus on what I want to do."
In April this year the Carers Centre employed Fraser as an Information & Admin worker. With the centre’s support he completed a three day workplace first aid course and completed a food hygiene course, and is now looking forward to starting college.
"I’ve been accepted at James Watt College to do an accountancy degree which starts in September. Until then I’ll keep working at the Carers Centre. I know I’ll still be able to get support from here even when I’m at college, and they have already helped me really increase my confidence, communication and employability skills."
Liz Finnie, the Training Manager for East Ayrshire Carers Centre, said: "What Fraser has managed to achieve is fantastic. This is a great example of how much difference getting the right support at the right time can make, and the impact different organisations working together to provide really tailored development can have. It would have been very easy for Fraser to have given up last October as he wasn’t sure how to get past the difficulties he was facing. As a young carer, he’s done extremely well to have got such good qualifications at school, and we are looking forward to supporting him as he works his way through college and hopefully on to a very bright future."