Case Study

John keeps his eye on the ball

12 Dec 2024

Supporting young players, including his three sons, to hone their footballing skills is large part of Employment Specialist John’s life. He’s coached youth squads near his home town of Bury for many years and plays in a five-a-side team himself. It was this passion for coaching others, plus a 15-year spell as a prison officer, that led him to recently set his sights in a new direction and join Ingeus.

“I left the prison service just as the pandemic hit, then went to work for a telemarketing company but it wasn’t my thing,” explains John. “I needed to get back to something that benefits others, with the flexibility to continue with my football commitments. Luckily, I’ve found just that here at Ingeus.”

As an Employment Specialist for Pioneer, part of the Working Well Work and Health Programme, John will be instrumental in supporting people with significant barriers into work. Having spent his first few weeks shadowing colleagues and undertaking training, he’s been keen to utilise the many Ingeus resources available, such as the internal professional development platform iCareer, to quickly get match fit.

“There are so many topics to delve into on iCareer, it’s very comprehensive,” he says. “I’ve completed some of the online psychometric tests and particularly like the different formats the training is provided in – there’s videos, articles, and interactive presentations.

“It’s been a long time since I did my prison officer training and it was very much a case of doing it and then getting on with the job. It’s been brilliant to be able to refresh my learning and fill some gaps. I’m especially interested in the neurodiversity training as I know that will help me work more effectively with some of my Pioneer participants. It’s also clear that ongoing learning is part of everyday working life here at Ingeus – I’ve got future training sessions booked in and have been encouraged to explore my own options.”

Ingeus colleagues can access resources on multiple topics, from data protection, information security, and safeguarding, to equality, diversity and inclusion, and detecting unconscious bias.

John concludes: “Accessing iCareer and learning more about what Ingeus does has opened my eyes to the range of roles I could possibly be suited for in the future. I’m ambitious and am keen to see where my training leads.

“I think my background leans toward helping people with multiple complex needs, although I’ve been blown away with the talents of the training team so would perhaps look to move to a training role myself – away from a rainy football pitch this time!”

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