Project Description

Rapid Return To Work © – Craig’s Story

The Rapid Return to Work © programme is specifically designed for people who have recently been made unemployed or been out of work for less than 13 weeks and could benefit from some expert help and support to get back into work.

It combines practical recruitment training, maintaining health and wellbeing, positive mindset and focus. It increases motivation and confidence, understanding of recruitment, including processes and the employer’s perspective and then has 3 months proactive support into work.

This is Craig’s Story and how he found Recro’s Programme:

“but things were moving and Eddie was a rock of support for all such occasions.”

“I am a software developer. Having been made redundant in March 2020, just as the first COVID-19 lockdown started, I found myself unemployed with very few jobs around. As the lockdown was lifted, I started to see roles coming through, but realised that the industry had changed and the programming language that I work with had fallen out of favour. I applied for many jobs without any success and started to feel quite lost and down about the situation. In November 2020, my work coach asked if I would like to go on a new course. My mind flicked back to a time, many years back, when I had previously experienced a back-to-work course; the memories were not good. However, I was desperate to get back into work and feel like I am contributing, so, I said yes. The course was called Rapid Return to Work; provided by Recro.

Given the COVID pandemic, the course was to be delivered remotely by Zoom which meant I didn’t need to go anywhere, but was suspect about whether this would affect the delivery. I couldn’t have been more wrong; the course worked incredibly well remotely. Indeed, break-out sessions in small groups worked amazingly since you didn’t have to contend with the buzz of other groups around you as you do in an onsite situation. The course was delivered by John McDonough who was very amiable and kept things interesting. He had no end of anecdotal stories to exemplify the topic being discussed and frequently used humour.

Delivered as 4 x 2 hr sessions over two days, the course is fast and covers quite a lot in the time frame. However, the course is only the beginning; it forms the foundation for ongoing work that Recro does with clients through a dedicated point of contact.

I was assigned to Eddie Murray after the course. I simply cannot say enough about this man to get across how much he helped me get into a new job. Starting with the basics identified in the course, such as CV we carved out an image to portray to prospective employers. Then we moved on to getting that image noticed. Amongst other things, Eddie got me to set up profiles on relevant websites and start making connections with the right people. Before long I was getting calls coming through from agents who had seen my CV and wanted to talk to me about a role they had. Not every conversation turned into an interview and my first interview wasn’t a successful outcome, but things were moving and Eddie was a rock of support for all such occasions.

When I was feeling despondent, he picked me up again, pointing out all the positives and stamping on the unhelpful notions that invade your mind after so long out of work. Soon enough a job offer came and I returned to employed status.

I am hugely grateful to Recro, and particularly Eddie, for everything they have done to equip me for a successful job hunt. If you are unemployed and finding it hard to get a new job, I highly recommend doing a course with Recro.”