00.00.04 My name’s John and I work here at the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre as an outreach worker. It means that I work outside of the centre a fair degree of time engaging disabled people who require advice and guidance on employment based issues. It could be training, it could be employment, it could be voluntary. Loosely what we call employment preparation.
00.00.34 I left school in 1969 and in those days you could leave school in the fourth year of the senior school. So I was still 15 when I left school. And many of the options in those days if you hadn’t decided to stay on at school and do more academic based things was to find a trade, which is what I did and I entered into the printing trade and ended up signing up for the five year apprenticeship, which is what I did. Qualified as a printer and continued to work in that trade for about 30 years, in fact until I was 49, which is when I made a career change.
00.01.14 I think as time went by as with a lot of things, you become slightly disenchanted and little bored I suppose, after over 30 years doing one job. I did work for different places. I didn’t work continually for one organisation but it was more or less the same job that I did for 30 years. And one of the things that prompted a change was actually health issues. I found I had a health problem which working in the trade that I did, would be affected by the physical aspect of the job and also a lot of chemicals and things like that were affecting my health and I decided to change.
00.01.52 When I finished working in the printing trade, I came to this centre for advice. And it was picked up fairly quickly by some of the people who worked here that I could perhaps could try and work as an advisor or work within this sector. And I became a volunteer here and then I took NVQs in advice and guidance. Now when I actually packed up printing, to be able to do that I took afternoon work. I drew up a plan with various people who advised me at the time. And I became a security guard in the afternoons. The reason being, was so that I could earn some money, still earn some money having left the printing trade, but still train to be able to this work.
00.02.34 So I trained and I would say, and took on some of the training on offer here at the centre and took that into my voluntary work here, until some posts became available. I applied for one of those. Got a part-time post and was successful applying for that. And gradually became a full-time member of staff here at the centre.
00.02.56 I think the balance between your personal and your life at home and your working life is very, very important. I think if you become too involved with either one thing it can dominate your life and that’s not always a good thing. I think balancing all aspects of life is important. And I would certainly say that about work and lifestyle and personal life, that balance is very, very important. We’ve got a good network of friends. I’ve got a growing family now, I’ve got three grown up children, six grandchildren so they take up a lot of our weekends and our spare time.
00.03.31 I enjoy travelling. My wife and myself travel a fair amount, holidays, nice holidays. I enjoy football. I watch professional football. I used to play a lot myself when I was younger. And I still enjoy live music, I go to a lot of music events and things like that so I’ve got quite a full personal life as well as a very busy working life
00.03.53 END
John Ellis
John Ellis
00.00.04 My name’s John and I work here at the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre as an outreach worker. It means that I work outside of the centre a fair degree of time engaging disabled people who require advice and guidance on employment based issues. It could be training, it could be employment, it could be voluntary. Loosely what we call employment preparation.
00.00.34 I left school in 1969 and in those days you could leave school in the fourth year of the senior school. So I was still 15 when I left school. And many of the options in those days if you hadn’t decided to stay on at school and do more academic based things was to find a trade, which is what I did and I entered into the printing trade and ended up signing up for the five year apprenticeship, which is what I did. Qualified as a printer and continued to work in that trade for about 30 years, in fact until I was 49, which is when I made a career change.
00.01.14 I think as time went by as with a lot of things, you become slightly disenchanted and little bored I suppose, after over 30 years doing one job. I did work for different places. I didn’t work continually for one organisation but it was more or less the same job that I did for 30 years. And one of the things that prompted a change was actually health issues. I found I had a health problem which working in the trade that I did, would be affected by the physical aspect of the job and also a lot of chemicals and things like that were affecting my health and I decided to change.
00.01.52 When I finished working in the printing trade, I came to this centre for advice. And it was picked up fairly quickly by some of the people who worked here that I could perhaps could try and work as an advisor or work within this sector. And I became a volunteer here and then I took NVQs in advice and guidance. Now when I actually packed up printing, to be able to do that I took afternoon work. I drew up a plan with various people who advised me at the time. And I became a security guard in the afternoons. The reason being, was so that I could earn some money, still earn some money having left the printing trade, but still train to be able to this work.
00.02.34 So I trained and I would say, and took on some of the training on offer here at the centre and took that into my voluntary work here, until some posts became available. I applied for one of those. Got a part-time post and was successful applying for that. And gradually became a full-time member of staff here at the centre.
00.02.56 I think the balance between your personal and your life at home and your working life is very, very important. I think if you become too involved with either one thing it can dominate your life and that’s not always a good thing. I think balancing all aspects of life is important. And I would certainly say that about work and lifestyle and personal life, that balance is very, very important. We’ve got a good network of friends. I’ve got a growing family now, I’ve got three grown up children, six grandchildren so they take up a lot of our weekends and our spare time.
00.03.31 I enjoy travelling. My wife and myself travel a fair amount, holidays, nice holidays. I enjoy football. I watch professional football. I used to play a lot myself when I was younger. And I still enjoy live music, I go to a lot of music events and things like that so I’ve got quite a full personal life as well as a very busy working life
00.03.53 END
John Ellis is an outreach worker at Birmingham Disability Resource Centre. He was a printer for thirty years, but work-related health problems forced a rethink. He became a volunteer at the centre, took NVQs in advice and guidance and financed this by working as a security guard in the afternoons. Now he has the full time job he wanted.
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