A day in the life of… Bethany Durling Inclusive Employment Team Manager

In April this year, we have welcomed Bethany Durling as the new Inclusive Employment Team Manager in North Essex Region.

Before her promotion in April, Beth worked as one of the team’s Inclusive Employment Consultants and she’s still keeping in touch with some customers.

Here’s what she said about her role:

“I’m here to support our consultants and job coaches in helping adults with learning disabilities and autism into employment.

“The employment opportunities could range from volunteering opportunities to paid employment.”

What does a typical workday look like for you?

“Every day looks completely different! We always start the day with a big team meeting.

“We talk about our aims for the week, upcoming interviews, any good news stories, if anything is not working out and overall discussion on what we’re going to do throughout the week.

“Most of my Mondays are filled with meetings with professionals in connection to social care. We might mention referrals that we have coming in, or anyone customers that we might need a bit of assistance with.

“I also have meetings with rest of the team managers and employer engagement team to find out where we are at with certain job outcomes, and any job opportunities sourced by the employer engagement team. We talk through region by region the opportunities they have found in their areas.

“I still have a couple of customers I work with from my time as a consultant. Because I moved into my manager role in April, I have kept a couple of customers to support my colleagues while they are on their training.

“I am also working with the team on arranging to go out to Adult Community Learning Colleges to encourage new students to consider Inclusive Employment, educating them about our services and what we can provide to them.

“Of course there is also a lot of admin work! I usually work a couple days in the office and then remote work for the other. The travelling is minimal, the only time I might travel is for training, to visit customer, for screenings or if I need to support any employment reviews.”

What do you love about your job?

“I enjoy helping people, staff and the customers. It’s rewarding seeing the changes which have happened from the when I started in the Inclusive Employment team to now. I look back at the number of job opportunities we worked for and gained and it makes me really proud. Seeing the amount of support we’ve provide is one of my favourite things about the job.”

Would you recommend roles in the Inclusive Employment team?

“Yes! It’s very rewarding. You get a huge job satisfaction. It’s a lot of hard work, but it pays off and you see the difference and changes you have made in peoples’ lives and how it impacts their independence.

“I have worked with individuals who started off with anxiety and then started working, getting their drivers’ lessons and managing their own finances – it is lovely to see!”