Tony Kindley Good News Story
Tony Kindley started on the New Deal programme in December 2008. Prior to his start on the programme WCVS were advised by his New Deal Personal Advisor that Tony was profoundly deaf and needed a signer for all elements of the programme. WCVS needed to source an appropriate placement in retail.
WCVS monitoring officer sourced a placement at Tesco ready for Tony to start, this went exceptionally well with signers organised from Skillcare through Jobcentre Plus. Tony was an asset to the team at Tesco however there were no employment opportunities at this time so Tony was then placed in Netto, this resulted in him widening his supermarket experience and gaining 2 very good references.
After the completion of his 13 week New Deal Tony continued to work with WCVS through the ESF Horizon programme. Again the signers were provided through Skillcare. To ensure Tony could continue to be involved with others an agreement with A4e and WCVS was made to ensure the signer payments were covered. By joining the ESF programme Tony was able to continue to be engaged with other people whilst gaining a wealth of experience. He continued at Netto and through the excellent feedback received from his supervisor his Jobcentre Plus Personal Adviser was able to put him forward for the new ASDA superstore vacancies in Ashington. This was through their disabled recruitment scheme. Through the support of Jobcentre Plus, WCVS and Skillcare, Tony was successful in gaining his first job at the age of 25.
On Friday 13th November a joint meeting was held at ASDA with Tony, his ASDA manager, Disability Employment Adviser, WCVS manager and signer. The feedback from the ASDA manager was extremely positive about the volume and quality of work Tony achieves in a day. His motivation and enthusiasm is boundless and this has resulted in ASDA wanting to train their staff up in signing so that everyone can communicate and Tony is not solely dependent on the signer.
Tony is absolutely thrilled with his job, his timekeeping and attendance is faultless, and he is extremely grateful for the support and opportunity he has been given by all parties involved.
