National Care Group proudly supports the Prince’s Trust in its work towards transforming the lives of young people.
We are committed to providing meaningful career support opportunities to help young people to develop the skills, confidence, and self-esteem to live happy and healthy lives, regardless of their background.
Leaders from across the organisation are matched with young people to provide career mentoring with a focus on adult social care.
These may be young people who need more support to find work, or young people for whom the traditional recruitment process hasn’t worked.
One recent success story is that of Rachel Angus. She is a part-time support worker at National Care Group who, with the mentorship of National Care Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Karen Lewis, has also achieved a career goal of becoming an apprentice Emergency Medical Technician.
On leaving university with a media degree, Rachel secured a role in the TV industry working on film sets where she quickly realised it wasn’t the career choice for her. Through her love of photography, she left and into a camera sales role.
Still feeling unfulfilled and inspired by the caring nature of her family with a Gran and sisters who were/are nurses, Rachel decided it was time to pursue a lifelong ambition of becoming a paramedic.
Rachel did some research and discovered that one way to become a paramedic is to first become an emergency medical technician, so applied to the apprenticeship course and achieved an interview where she was unfortunately unsuccessful.
Resiliently, Rachel dusted herself off, re-applied, and went on to secure another interview. With determination to achieve her goal, this time she decided to respond to a Prince’s Trust story on social media regards career support to see how they could help her achieve her dream at the next interview.
The Prince’s Trust instantly recognised Rachel’s ambition, unlike other career guidance channels that had encouraged Rachel to stay in the media industry.
They explained the mentorship programme and matched Rachel with Karen who immediately got in touch and organised their first session.
Karen began by reviewing Rachel’s CV, quickly recognising that Rachel lacked any work experience in the health care sector, concluding that her interview could have been unsuccessful due to having no hands-on expertise.
Karen suggested that Rachel gain the skills and experience required by becoming a support worker for National Care Group and on agreement, coached her through an application for a vacancy at Albert Road, an acquired brain injury rehabilitation service in Manchester.
Rachel was successful at interview and started with training in August 2023, completing her first official shift as a support worker in October.
Rachel found the interview really refreshing as she was asked about her personal values and passions rather than just her qualifications.
Rachel also said that the training and great induction from the Albert Road team which included a shift shadowing a colleague, gave her the confidence she needed to do the role.
The support from National Care Group colleagues helped her to feel prepared and ready to work with the people she supports.
"Being a support worker doesn’t feel like going to work, it's like going to visit and offering support to a friend or family member. We help with some personal tasks and with everyday living skills at home, but we also support getting out into the community including trips to the pub, a walk at the park, going to shops or attending medical appointments."
Karen continued to mentor Rachel. They re-worked her CV and personal statement, adding her new hands-on experience.
Rachel also attended a National Care Group training course on interview skills to help with her next apprenticeship interview – which resulted in success, Rachel finally achieved her placement!
"I'm delighted and really grateful to Karen, National Care Group, and the Prince's Trust for all the support I've received. I plan to remain as a bank support worker at Albert Road throughout my apprenticeship, which will take 15 months to complete. I will then work for two years as an Emergency Medical Technician before I am able to move on to a paramedic course."
Are you inspired by Rachel’s story?
Click here to find out more about why a career with National Care Group is for you.
National Care Group is one of the UK’s leading adult social care providers. We support adults with learning disabilities, mental health diagnoses, acquired brain injuries, and autistic people, with services across England and Wales.
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