Your employment as a care leaver

We want to help you achieve your potential, developing your skills and building experience through employment opportunities.

Your personal adviser (PA) will be able to support you to find employment opportunities and will provide any information about benefit entitlements. You will talk about employment and write your goals into your pathway plan. If you're not sure what you want to do, then the National Careers Service website is a good place to start. It has job profiles, telling you how much you can earn in different roles, advice on the different stages of a job hunt, including how to improve your interview skills, write an effective CV and help to search for your first job.

If you have a Jobcentre work coach, they can help you find suitable job opportunities and to claim benefits if you are eligible. You can also receive up to £100 for one set of clothing suitable for interviews. Speak to your work coach for more information. If you would like, you can provide consent for your work coach to liaise directly with your PA.

You can find some of the financial support available to you here if you are in employment. Speak to your PA as well to find out exactly what support you can get from the Care Leavers' Service (CLS).

Page contents

Support with finding a job

Writing a CV

If you need some help with writing a CV, you can find CV templates online. Don't worry if you don't have a lot of work experience, you can still reference things like any volunteering you have done, any hobbies or clubs you are part of and how they have helped you to develop skills.

The CLS, in partnership with the Surrey Virtual School now use an interactive careers tool to help PA's support you to develop and update your CV. Speak to your PA if you want support to create an impressive CV.

Interview preparation

If you have a job interview, there are lots of interview tips online but make sure you tell your PA. They'd be happy to run through some questions with you and help you get ready for your interview.

Some of the things you will want to consider are:

  • making sure you dress appropriately - first impressions count so make sure you are dressed smartly
  • making sure you arrive in good time - allow yourself plenty of time to get to the interview to ensure that you aren't late
  • researching the company in advance - this will show that you have taken a genuine interest in the job you are applying for and have used your initiative to find out more
  • thinking about possible interview questions and the answers you would give - think about the skills you need for the role and examples of how you have used these in the past.

The Lighthouse Style Studio

The Lighthouse charity is community project that offers support for those who need it. There are four Lighthouse communities based in Woking, Barnsbury, Aldershot and Guildford.

The Woking Lighthouse has the Style Studio, two beautiful studios which are filled with high quality clothes, ready to welcome and support people as they prepare for all seasons of life. The Style Studio offers free one-to-one support to help build confidence and improve social wellbeing. You can try on clothes, shoes and accessories and receive guidance from experienced style advisors. You can receive items at no cost and leave feeling ready for a job interview or comfortable in every day life.

Booking an appointment to visit the Style Studio can be done online but please do speak to your PA if you would like support with this.

Youth Hubs

Youth Hubs offer a one stop shop of intensive employment and learning support for young people and are in each of the Surrey district and boroughs. The Youth Hub service includes initial advice and guidance, coaching/ mentoring support, access to training courses, together with opportunities for professional development and employer engagement.

The service supports young people between the ages of 18 – 24 to make the most of training and job opportunities locally. The Youth Hubs also work with local residents and businesses to offer opportunities for young people in the local area. Please speak to your PA if you are interested in attending one of the Surrey Youth Hubs.

You can also access Youth Hubs if you are living outside of Surrey, visit the Gov.uk website for a list of Youth Hubs in your local area.

Job sites

There are lots of different job search sites online. Below are just a few that you may wish to have a look at:

Opportunities

Care Leaver Covenant – Connects

The Care Leaver Covenant is a national programme that brings together private, public or voluntary organisations to support care leavers aged 16-25 to live independently.

It's a national scheme which Surrey signed up to in April 2022. Find out more about Surrey's Care Leaver Covenant commitment and the development our Care Leaver Covenant Priorities.

Connects is a tool for care leavers to keep up to date with all that the Covenant has to offer. Surrey are one of the Local Authorities signed up to the Care Leaver Covenant and are committed to increasing opportunities for care leavers.

Once you have signed up, Connects will keep you up to date with relevant work, education and recreational opportunities as well as information about support you may be able to access. It can match you to meaningful opportunities and also to stay in touch with anyone who is supporting you into employment. Connects sends opportunities related to your interests and ambitions and automatically enter you to win prizes in monthly give-aways. You can download the app too.

Building Happier Futures

Surrey is delighted to be working in partnership with John Lewis on the Building Brighter Futures Programme. This is a supported employment approach which gives you the opportunity of work experience and a guaranteed interview at one of the local John Lewis or Waitrose stores in Surrey.

We would really encourage you to speak to your PA about this opportunity as a number of our care leavers have gained valuable experience and employment via the programme.

Civil Service Internships for care leavers

The Civil Service Care Leavers Internship Scheme is a flagship scheme which offers care leavers an 18-month paid job role in a central government department or agency. There is also a possibility that interns can be made permanent after the first 12 months.

Being part of this scheme has some great benefits that can include:

  • An opportunity for you to develop your work-based skills and increase your confidence in a professional and supportive environment
  • You will be given learning and development opportunities alongside your day-to-day role
  • A great chance to develop new friendships and connections.

Volunteering

Volunteering can be a great way to build your skills and meet new people. If you are interested in working in a particular area but don't have the experience of doing so, then volunteering can really help you gain the experience you're missing. For example, if you really want to work with animals then you may find there are volunteering opportunities at your local animal shelter that you can help with.

There are a number of digital platforms such as do-it.org or Vinspired that can connect you with suitable volunteering opportunities.

There are also a number of local volunteering organisations that support each of the boroughs in Surrey. You may wish to contact them to find out what opportunities they have available.

Did you find this information helpful?

Rating Did you find the information helpful?

We aren't able to reply to individual comments, so please don't include any personal details.

Subscribe to our newsletters for latest news and events.