To try and give everyone a better understanding of the range of services we offer, each Careers Wales blog will contain information about the types of support we can offer and some examples of the work we have been undertaking.

This week I am to tell you a little more about the role of a personal advisor. I am one of eight personal advisors working in the west Wales region. All personal advisors must be Level 4 qualified to deliver advice and guidance to clients who are aged between 14 and 25.

Personal advisors are able to offer on-going support to clients who have either disengaged or are at risk of disengaging from education, employment or training.

Personal advisors work with a caseload of individual clients who are seen on a regular basis to support them in identifying and addressing personal barriers that may be hindering their personal/career development. Personal advisors also work to support clients during transitional periods in their life.

Key to our role is the network of agencies with whom we maintain regular communication. There are too many to list but examples include: drug and alcohol support agencies, homelessness agencies, young parent support groups, and youth offending team.

Personal advisors make regular referrals to these agencies, ensuring that our clients are offered specialist support with their individual barriers. We are very lucky in west Wales to have a huge range of support services available to our clients.

To give you a better idea of what we do, here are some examples of work our team has undertaken in the past two weeks: - On-going work to support a client who was abused when she was younger and is now estranged from her parents, she has just achieved excellent exam results and starting university in two weeks.

- Supporting a young client (who is a care leaver) to apply for funding to buy basic items for his new flat. Also working with this client to provide him with basic budgeting knowledge, as it is the first time they have lived independently.

- Working to support a client with his application to transfer schools, after being severely bullied in his previous school.

- Weekly meetings to support a partially deaf client in finding and preparing for work or training.

- Referred a young father for drugs counselling as he wants to secure employment in the future to provide for his new baby.

- Client did not get the GCSE grades they required to continue with A levels, have been working to support this client in securing a suitable course in college.

These are just a few examples of the work that personal advisors carry out.

The service is designed to be flexible and can be tailored to suit individual clients.

If you would like to refer someone to us for support from a personal advisors or would like further information about the service, you are welcome to call into one of our centres, or you can telephone or email me via the contact information below.

Natalie 01437 772100 natalie.Thomas@cwwest.co.uk

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here