After everything 2020 threw at us all, when we were given the chance to help young people to find employment and develop new skills, of course we said yes!
The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment. It provides a fully funded opportunity for young people to gain experience of working in some of Britain’s most exciting companies and is funded by the Government.
This is the first time have supported a campaign like this. So we have had some expert guidance from Toni Smerdon who’s providing free coaching for our recruits. We are making sure that they are getting a complete overview of how we run the business, teaching them everything we know and making sure they get some great experience to add to their CV’s. We catch up with them weekly to find out how their experience is going, making sure they are making the most of the opportunity and that we are giving them the right guidance. After the first 3 months we will look back at what they have learnt, what they’ve enjoyed, what they found hard and then set a plan for them for the next 3 months. So far we have welcomed Josh, Krystina and Tom and we hope to be able to offer more opportunities like this in the future :)
Josh is showing great potential and already getting 5 Star Reviews…
All the five star reviews are well deserved! Shelley and Josh were great guides and full of interesting llama facts. And the llamas are so adorable and strokeable. Shelley is also great at taking lovely photos with her iPhone and shared them with us over WhatsApp/Airdrop for Covid safety. Don’t hesitate… just do it! For llama trekking it’s good to be fairly fit for steep hills. Other locations offer walks on the level if you prefer (eg Lingholm). 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Every time you book a walk, trek or meet and greet with us it enables us to not only provide valuable training experience with our Kickstarters but it also helps to support our other work with the community. We are a non-profit Social Enterprise so we work with 3rd Sector Organisations in the community ensuring that everyone gets the chance to experience the joys and benefits of time outdoors walking alpacas or trekking with llamas. So thank you so much for coming to see us and choosing us as an activity to do here in the Lake District, we would be lost without you :) x
More about our Social Enterprise
How you can Support the Woolly Army
This is what we promise to deliver for our Kickstarters…
1. We will give them experience working in a highly successful Social Enterprise that rescues alpacas and llamas, walking and trekking with them in the Lake District. They will learn to work as a team, animal handling and management, customer interaction, health and safety and time management. We will advise them on how to ‘sell themselves’ for a job, focusing on their strengths, experiences and developing skills and enthusiasm for new opportunities.
2. We will provide this support throughout their time with us, we have a small team and will ensure they are given time with everyone to learn all aspects of the business.
3. We will utilise 3 days/25 hours per week with each applicant easily, (due to covid regulations) they MUST be able to drive (17yo+) and we will give all of them access to our different sites, activities and varied roles within the company.
4. Our key contact will be our Directors; Emma, Terry and Ruby, all of them work within the business and all of them will provide the framework and support needed for each participant.
5. We will create a plan, working with the participants, asking them what they would like to achieve by the end of their time with us, we will then document this plan as a checklist and ensure that it’s completed by the end of the 6 months.
6. After the initial interview, if the participant is successful, we will schedule in a monthly catch-up with them to ensure they are getting the training and support that they need, this will provide them with the opportunity to give us feedback. We will also set-up a WhatsApp group for the participants, so they can communicate with us at anytime during their placement. If action is needed at anytime, we will make the time needed to sit down and discuss the desired outcomes for both parties. With our applicants for Videographer/Editor and Social Media Content Creator they will get to learn about the business and be able to communicate who we are, once they have established themselves we will work with them to create content for our social media channels, providing them with the tools to be able to do this; phone, camera, lighting, laptop/computer, editing packages and training if wanted i.e. Social Media Marketing course.
We’re very proud to be involved and to be giving our new team members a Woolly Army style start in their work life! If you want to get involved get in touch [email protected].
Wordsmiths: Rachel Kearns & Emma Smalley
