Connie Craddock

Every week me and my friend used to volunteer at brownies.

This was a fun experience as it allowed me to gain valuable working skills when I was of a younger age, such as patience, communication, and problem solving. As I did this when I was younger, it allowed me to bring these skills into employment a year or two later.

I coach primary school aged children gymnastics twice a week, recreationally rather than competitively.

This taught me to work well in a team as it is a job that not only requires personal dedication, adaptability, and initiative, but also being a gymnastics coach means you have to rely on your colleagues, meaning I have learnt skills in communication effectively and working well with other people.

It has also allowed me to work on my time management and leadership skills as these are important for gymnastics coaches which I did not possess before I started coaching but believe I am more confident that I have these now.

During this virtual work experience activity, I had a chance to see what it would be like to work in Human Resources at Barclays bank.

The course required me to plan the first few weeks of a new employees role, which helped me gain and develop skills in creativity / innovation, writing, planning, independence, adaptability, and resilience.