Institute of Directors Awards – Director Award for Youth Development

It is day 2 of our themed blogs. To coincide with the Director of the Year Awards this week’s blog space will be filled with all of the amazing work Stevie does to develop young people. 

Today we will be sharing the ongoing story of Stephen McDonald which is apt because Stephen is in the office today as part of his continuous work experience placement with KDS Group.

Stephen’s KDS journey began in August 2010 when he was a participant on ‘The Recruit’ programme. A business focussed programme for 16 – 18 year olds which was run by Renfrewshire Council and of which KDS was the main sponsor. The premise of the programme was for the participants to compete for top jobs with KDS and for one year contracts with other employers.

Stephen did not secure any of these positions but he was focussed on what he wanted to achieve in his future. He was facing some issues with confidence and with self esteem and upon completion of the programme Stephen’s mum got in touch with us to ask if Stevie could spare some time to mentor Stephen to help him realise his dream of studying accountancy at college.

Stevie decided that he wanted to help Stephen and he went about creating a 6 month work experience placement for Stephen, we worked in partnership with Stephen’s mum and with his guidance teacher. We also sought specialised advice from the Autism society as Stephen has Asperger’s Syndrome.

The programme started in December and Stephen has been growing and growing gaining confidence and experience at every step. A major part of the programme involves intensive one to one mentoring sessions with Stevie where they explore Stephen’s challenges and devise strategies for dealing with these.

Stevie has created a Learning Programme where Stephen goes on site visits to various businesses and has direct access to Directors. He conducts an interview with the Directors and gets to ask what motivates them and what attributes they have that make them so successful. So far he has visited A4e, Royal Bank of Scotland, Square Circle HR and we have visits planned for Arnold Clark and FedEx.

Stephen has been documenting his journey at every step and this can viewed at http://www.steviekidd.co.uk/people/stephens-journey/

We are proud to have Stephen as part of our team and he is an asset to the business.
 

2 Comments

Posted by Sarahjane on 16 March 2011

The opportunity Stevie has given Stephen is invaluable, and the work Stephen puts into it shows that he appreciates this!

Posted by katie on 15 March 2011

There have been major changes in Stephen since he started his journey with Stevie Kidd and KDS! A shy young boy has become a more confident young man who has a focus and direction for his future! Stephen has overcome every challenge he has faced and has taken seriously the opportunities and learnings he has got through working with Stevie! Well done to both of you on these remarkable changes! K

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