In this blog, I am going to be talking about my experience of getting work experience as a care experienced person while being both in education and living away from any close employment.
During my time in foster care, I was struggling very badly with my physical and mental health, but during this time, I was always active on trying to find some sort of employment, as I wanted to earn some money that I knew that I earned and that I could be proud of earning.
Being in foster care, really made me think a lot about how my future was going to look like, as before I got taken into care, I knew everything was going to be planned out for me and that if the plans did not work, I knew that I would still be able to stay at home with my parents. However, when being in care, this all changed as the reality hit me that when i turned into an adult, I was going to be on my own and I needed to learn how to survive and work for myself without any support or help from others that much.
So due to this, I applied for literally every single job that I could find online and in stores, as I was determined that before I did anything, I wanted to learn how to work for the money I had and not rely on other people to support me and fund things that I wanted to do. As I was at college at the time, I had a lot of extra course costs to pay especially for photography materials, so at the time, me getting a job and being able to pay for these myself was a great learning curve for me.
However, The first few times of finding employment was extremely hard as my foster placement was quite far away from any close shops or stores that were hiring at the time of my applying, so it was extremely hard for me to be accepted for posts as I was not really in a reliable travelling distance for me to get in on time. During this time, it made me feel extremely upset, as it was like no one wanted to hire me because of me being in care, but after applying to literally every single post that I saw, I was able to get a job as a sales assistant in photography, which helped me during my photographic course in college.
The first job I got during my time in care, helped me a lot and taught me massively about what it is like to be independent, as I was able to learn that if I did not go into work, I would not get paid, which was a massive incentive for me especially when coming down to the trips and course materials I would need during my studies.
So, if I was to give some advice and experience to care experienced people from my blog, it would be to always try and get a job while you are young, as the experience of knowing that the money you have is yours and you earned it, but also knowing that you have worked hard to get the cash you have is a great experience for later life, especially when you are living alone, as this will give you the knowledge and key experiences for later life and most importantly the reality of what it is like to budget for yourself.
I learned this the hard way, but I would never want to change the experience I have had as it has made me into the better person I am now, which is exactly what I hope this blog will be able to do for the readers who view this blog.
By Anonymous Care Experienced Blogger
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