A Dundee schoolgirl has earned a job at a city hotel after impressing her mentor in a career project.
Kirkton resident Chelsea Elliot, 17, joined the Career Ready mentoring scheme earlier this year.
Her mentor, Manny Barber, 47, was so impressed by Chelsea’s progress that he offered her a job at the Sleeperz Hotel, where he is the general manager.
Chelsea, a pupil at Morgan Academy, now works part-time on the hotel reception and says the mentoring scheme has given her a great life.
“I would 100% recommend it,” she says. “If it wasn’t for the mentoring I’d be working at not-a-great job.
“I have made so many friends out of it and it has created so many opportunities.”
‘I was lacking confidence’
Chelsea was a high-achiever academically but being mentored gave her more strings to her bow.
“Before, I was lacking confidence and my social skills were not the greatest,” she says.
“But doing the mentorship really helped my confidence.”
She began sessions with Manny after hearing about the scheme in January 2021.
“Chelsea was perfect for the programme,” he said. “She was highly engaged and wanted to add life skills and better deal with situations in life.”
‘She did extremely well’
Suitably impressed, Manny organised for Chelsea to do an internship at the hotel reception over four weeks in June.
“Every time she was on shift I’d take 20 minutes out to talk to her to see how she was getting on,” Manny said.
“She did extremely well integrating with colleagues.”
‘I was quite shy’
In the final week of her work experience stint Chelsea was offered a 16-hour contract, working on the reception mainly on weekends.
Since starting in the role she has also done some breakfast shifts, serving food and cleaning tables.
“It sounds stupid but before this I’d never have been able to speak to people on the phone as I was quite shy.
“This has given me confidence in life that I didn’t have.
“For example, something you don’t learn in school is how to write a formal email and how to do line breaks.
“Before doing this job I would have never known how to do this.”
‘I never ever thought that would be a career for me’
Chelsea is keen on sports and enjoys playing badminton, ultimate frisbee and football. Prior to the mentoring she anticipated a career very different to the one she is now considering.
“When I first found out I was going to be a hotel receptionist I never ever thought that would be a career for me,” she said.
“I didn’t think I’d be sitting in front of a computer. I always thought I’d be in a teaching role but this is now a consideration.
“I was quite set on being a primary school teacher or a secondary PE teacher.
“They are still options but I am definitely looking at business and hospitality.”
‘It’s helped my independence’
Chelsea, who worked at Moonlight Desserts, Hilltown, in the first half of 2020, collected As in English, PE, modern studies and politics in her highers, as well as a C in maths.
The proud daughter of Richard and Karen is this year studying an advanced higher in PE and highers in history and philosophy.
“It’s made so many things so much easier and helped my independence because I am not relying on my parents for money,” she added.
‘This wasn’t available to me when I was younger’
Manny believes the Career Ready scheme is of great benefit to both mentor and mentee.
He said: “I progressed up the ladder from being a part-time waiter and have worked with different types of leaders.
“So I fully realised the benefits of having a good mentor and, also, a good mentor programme, which wasn’t available to me when I was younger.
“Developing Chelsea’s confidence has given her a different view of her career.”
Champions needed
Career Ready has partnered with crowd-funding platform Charity Extra to raise £250,000 in just 36 hours on November 26-27.
It is looking for ‘champions’ to take on a small individual fundraising goal to raise from your network of colleagues, family and friends – with no need to do any challenge activities.
Career Ready is also running a series of sessions where you can discover more and hear from our team on the difference you can make by taking part.