A Day in the Life of…Craig Jarvie, Youth Team Leader, CEIS Ayrshire
Welcome to the latest instalment in our “A Day in the Life Series” where we interview colleagues from every part of the CEIS Group and ask them to reflect on their career, their role and their experiences of working within the group.
Recently, we had a chat with Craig Jarvie, Youth Team Leader for CEIS Ayrshire. Craig has been with CEIS Ayrshire since July 2018 and transitioned into his current position from Key Worker in March 2021. For Craig, working for CEIS Ayrshire has been an excellent opportunity for both personal and professional development, whilst providing employability / team support. With a team-oriented mindset, Craig enjoys overseeing his team’s development and performance in their roles, plus subsequent progression of clients into employment, education or training.
What do you enjoy most about working at CEIS Ayrshire?
The thing I enjoy most is that our team can have a significant impact on employability within the North Ayrshire area. Within the Youth team, our focus is to help clients who are aged between 16 – 24 years old move into employment, education or workplace-based training and assist with reducing barriers tailored to each individual. Every person who comes through our doors is on their own personal journey. Whether they require assistance with mental health, literacy or simply self-belief, our support begins from the initial registration. I enjoy being part of a team, and it’s a team that do a fantastic job of supporting our clients, with numerous methods of employability support – this can range from a one-to-one CV session, assistance with accredited qualifications and training or essentially being the support that the individual requires to move forward in their lives.
When a client successfully moves into work or education, and when we have helped them overcome life barriers, their feedback is amazing and makes all our work worthwhile.
I really appreciate the interaction of all the team – we all have different strengths, and we use this to our advantage to help each other in our roles and to help our clients progress.
What does a typical day look like for you?
As the Youth team leader, I have a variety of different responsibilities – A typical day is difficult to describe, as this can range from having meetings with DWP or Providing North Ayrshire Council with performance updates, attending employments fairs, assisting with new youth training development opportunities (with Joan our Skills and Training Team Leader) or looking at performance targets. My role is pretty varied.
In the last few months, I have organised for the team to work out of three different job centres (Irvine, Saltcoats and Kilbirnie) on Thursdays each week. This involved co-ordinating staff, ensuring we could resource this time and working closely with the jobcentres. However, it has worked, and we are now working in these jobcentres every Thursday, allowing us to build effective relationships with the DWP work coaches, case conferencing (where we communicate with the DWP to discuess the status of our clients) and effectively progressing our clients.
A typical day would most likely, start off by collating any referrals we have received, updating our tracking spreadsheet (which we update with personal details, if they’ve been referred by the DWP or if they have self-referred or if they have had any referrals in the past or appointments booked with ourselves and the DWP), and allocating these to members of the team based upon area.
Our youth team are spread out over different offices, and this allows us to provide our employability service with a wide reach – my team members are Gillian and Erica. Gillian will mostly receive referrals for the Irvine area and Erica will take referrals from the three towns area (which comprises Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston). Whilst I will take referrals in Stevenston and the Garnock Valley.
We as a team will contact our referrals and look to start providing support as soon as possible. I’ll also arrange to contact the team and find out how they are progressing with their caseload, any challenges they may be facing and offer any support when required.
Alongside that, I have weekly meetings with our Operations Manager, Joyce Houston, our 25+ team leader Lynne Carr and our General Manager, Stephen Hamill. These meetings have been running since I have taken on my team leading role and have been instrumental in my own development within my role. It is an excellent opportunity to sound out ideas, gain a better understanding of wider projects and essentially receive support and development for my role.
I feel very appreciative to receive the support that I do from senior management. Whether this is Keith Mason who is our Business Development Manager or General Manager Stephen Hamill – we have a very supportive management structure who are genuinely interested in staff development.
I receive support regularly from my manager Joyce Houston who helps sound out any challenges that I face in my role and is very understanding, which is very much appreciated. I like to think my team feels they receive similar support from me.
Other than the duties I’ve detailed above, I manage my own caseload – organising appointments with my clients and providing any support they need to help them progress into a positive destination. The type of support will vary from helping someone with a CV, covering letter, organising mental health support, assisting with qualifications or providing preparation for any upcoming interviews.
As you can see, there is a lot of variety in my days as a Youth Team Leader. However, this most definitely keeps my job interesting and allows me to keep learning in my role. As they say: “Every day is a school day!”
How has the role changed since the pandemic?
Before the pandemic we were in the office five days a week, seeing clients every day and providing support face to face. When the pandemic hit, this took a toll on how we were able to deliver our service as most of the support we were able to provide was over the phone or by email and I believe our clients missed this face-to-face interaction.
However, the pandemic did provide some positives for how we work – our business development and skills and training team done a fantastic job of assisting us as key workers to move our training facilities and support online.
The development team sourced our “TrainME” system that allows us to put our clients through accredited training via online delivery and sourced our “DevelopME” system that provides clients online tools to assist with their CV’s, interview skills etc – giving our clients all the necessary tools for self-development.
Whilst our skills and training team developed workshops previously delivered face to face to online workshops via zoom -co-ordinating dates, times and regular workshops for our clients to attend.
On coming out of the pandemic, we have adopted a hybrid approach to working. Meaning we see our clients face to face for support but also refer them for online qualifications via “TrainME” or our online “DevelopME” system, empowering our clients, providing structure and giving development routes.
In a strange way I believe that the pandemic has had many positives for us as a company and we are now able to provide an extra level of support to our clients that we never had before.
I must also take this moment to say well done to our Development and Skills and Training team!!
What excites you the most about work?
The most exciting aspect of my job is hearing about other people’s success.
There is nothing better than receiving a call or email from a client or a team member about exciting news.
For example: “Hi Craig, I got the Job!! I start on Monday, thanks for all your help”
Or
“Hi Craig, the person I have been working for a while – has finally been able to move into work and is really happy with all the support I gave him/her”
Hearing the happiness in someone’s voice about progressing, overcoming adversity or challenges – these small victories make all the difference and of course, make a difference in people’s lives.
Noticing staff in the team gain confidence in their role and progress is always brilliant to see.
In my eyes this is the best part of the job; I truly believe that “Magic” happens in these offices at CEIS Ayrshire.
What advice would you give people looking to pursue a similar career?
My advice would be: Be a team player, be adaptable, be pro-active and don’t be scared to ask for help.
In my role, I feel that I am constantly learning and adapting – It could be changes to compliance work, new challenges that young people face, new systems or support required. So, I like to be pro-active and think of solutions to any issues we may face as a team.
In terms of teamwork, everyone has their own strengths and weakness “No man is an island” so when in a team, help out others when you feel it plays to your strengths and don’t be scared to ask for help if you are not good in that particular area.
I’d also say do your best. Failure is a great opportunity to learn from your mistakes and make you better. Helping you achieve what you would like to achieve.
Thanks to Craig for freeing up some time in his busy schedule to chat with us. If you’d like to learn more about CEIS Ayrshire, or are interested in improving your own, or your employees’ skills through one-to-one or online training, then get in touch with them now to discuss your requirements.