“I’d recommend joining Step into Education because they can help you progress and help you to do better things than what you were doing before.”

When I left school I went onto college and studied a vocational access course. After that I started a sports course, but realised halfway through that I couldn’t see myself enjoying a career in sports, so I left college and started looking for work.

I felt quite confused at the time because I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I’d end up after leaving college. Nothing came of any job applications I made, so I felt quite anxious as well.

Careers Wales referred me to Llamau so I could join their Step Into Education Programme. They thought they could help me find out what I wanted to do.

I first met my tutor, Anna, in the Step Into Education centre. I enjoyed speaking to Anna because she seemed like she knew what she was doing and that she could help me get somewhere. She made me feel relaxed and like I could talk to her about what I wanted to try and achieve.

Anna’s always supportive of me and she’s helped me to understand the work I’ve been doing with her. To start with I studied career progression, communicating with others and money management. All my studies so far have given me more ideas and helped me look deeper into what I want from a job one day. I’m also more comfortable speaking to people now.

I’ve been going to the Centre once a week since July last year as well as doing some online learning. It’s very laid back and Anna makes learning fun and interesting.

I’ve been able to take part in workshops as well, which has helped me gain knowledge on really important issues, like racism and drug misuse. The drug misuse workshop helped me to understand why people end up taking drugs. It’s given me a good reason not to judge others, because sometimes their situations are not good. The racism workshop was an eye opener to how people can sometimes treat others.

I’m still with Step into Education, currently studying Welsh culture. I’ve found learning about the history of mining interesting. The whole course has made me feel more connected to my country.

I’m happy because I’ll be starting a course in Animal Care at college in September. Anna helped me with my application and my work experience with animals helped. I hope to work with animals one day and will consider lots of jobs within the animal sector.