Paralympic star’s advice to Poole jobseekers (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Paralympic star’s advice to Poole jobseekers
10:00am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News By Jim Durkin
Paralympic rowing cox Helen Arbuthnot at the RNLI Lifeboat College in Poole
PARALYMPIC rowing cox Helen Arbuthnot has visited Poole to support a Government programme aimed at getting unemployed people back into the workplace.
Helen, who at London 2012 coxed the first Irish boat to ever compete at a Paralympics Games, met more than a hundred jobseekers at the RNLI Lifeboat College.
The former Christchurch School pupil was in Poole as part of a Department for Work and Pensions initiative run by training company Prospects.
After speaking to jobseekers about her own struggle to overcome adversity, Helen said: “I’m delighted to be able to share my experience to help people struggling with unemployment to stay motivated and create a better life for themselves.
“Rowing, especially at competitive level, is all about focus and dedication but lessons from it can be applied to all walks of life which is what I hope to pass on to others.
“I know how quickly you can lose your motivation and confidence when unemployed but I hope my story will encourage people to keep at it.”
Able-bodied Helen only became involved with rowing in 2004, taking just eight years to cox the Irish mixed coxed four boat. During London 2012 her boat finished fourth in the B final.
She was born in Christchurch but represented the Irish team due to her father’s Irish roots.
Prospects’ Nicki MacFarlane said: “Not everyone can say they’ve met a Paralympian so we’re thrilled Helen could join us. We hope hearing Helen will inspire customers and give them a new perspective on the issues they’re facing. When you’re unemployed your world can become a lot smaller but events like this give customers and opportunity to meet new people and increase their confidence.
“We also asked local employers and training companies to come along and meet customers and we hope this will result in success for customers soon.”
Comments(7)
dinkie123
says...
12:01pm Sat 9 Mar 13
Time_Traveller wrote:Able-bodied people can participate as cox's in the paralympics.
How could she enter as a paralympian if she is able bodied?
Very Old Man
says...
4:25pm Sat 9 Mar 13
Bluestew
says...
9:21pm Sat 9 Mar 13
Very Old Man wrote:Agreed, the government agenda to demonise and attack the unemployed and the complicity with the mainstream media has fuelled and maintained a culture of blame and prejudice against benefit claimants and has enabled the passage for the exploitation of the unemployed in demeaning schemes such as workfare which not only is modern day slavery, but diminishes workers rights and depletes real jobs for real wages. I may also add that Prospects also participates in the workfare scheme.
Before anybody can begin to advise the unemployed in this day and age, they should try it. We get treated as the scum of the Earth-regardless of our previous work record. The people who are employed at the Jobcentres are the worst offenders for this.
Azphreal
says...
9:16am Sun 10 Mar 13
Very Old Man
says...
10:13am Sun 10 Mar 13
Azphreal wrote:True. Since being made involuntarily redundant two years ago I have applied for, literally, hundreds of jobs-not only in my field but anything at all that would get me back into work. I have in all that time had just three employers who bothered to reply.
Very Old Man and Bluestew have hit the nail on the head. The disaboled are attacked by the Government and tame media but also the cases of physical attacks against the disabled have also gone up. What about the people with a varied condition who may seem 'normal' one day but are then stuck flat on their backs for days? Who would ever give them a job?
Then, two months ago, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. So what did the local council do when they found out? they stopped our housing benefit of course!
It got sorted out after a few weeks-but not before we had the stress of fighting to keep our home at the same time as my wife's intensive treatment started.
This is the reality for those of us who have lost our jobs through no fault of our own, are desperately trying to get back into work and, in the meantime are having to live in the benefits trap. It is not what we want, we want work.
l'anglais
says...
3:10pm Sun 10 Mar 13
Condescending silver spooned toffs.
Time_Traveller says...
11:52am Sat 9 Mar 13