helping students realise their potential

The 18-year-old’s problems began five years ago. Not interested in school work, she began misbehaving in lessons and became violent at home.

At 15, she was excluded from school and living in a children’s home. She went to college in Harrogate for a year after taking her GCSEs, but her convictions meant she couldn’t find a work placement to develop her skills.

Since joining Dr B’s however, she has completed a level 1 NVQ in food preparation and cooking and is working towards level 2 on an apprenticeship with a Harrogate caf.

She has cooked with celebrity chef Atul Kochhar – “I was a nervous wreck,” she remembers –and hopes to find permanent employment after completing the apprenticeship.

Steve, 17, tells a similar story. After an unhappy time at school, he is being supported by Barnardo’s on an Entry 2 Employment course to develop his maths and English skills alongside a work placement with a sign writing firm in Harrogate.

“I’ve improved my communication skills and I’ve learnt a lot more than I did at school because I’m benefiting from one-to-one teaching,” he said.

“My confidence has grown since I started the work placement and I wouldn’t mind staying at the company to develop my skills further.”

Barnardo’s vocational instructor Tricia Howard said that, before the work placement, Steve would have lacked the confidence to be interviewed for a newspaper article.

“Everyone at the firm is really pleased with him and his thirst for knowledge,” she said. “They are desperate to get him into employment.”