Riding high with Gold Star
A Big County business is the latest to be given a Gold Star Award for its work with people who face barriers to employment.
Inchcoonans Equestrian near Errol, which is owned by Carol Wivvel, provides livery services for horse owners and holds equestrian competitions.
Gold Star status is aimed at firms who go the extra mile to employ local people who face significant barriers to employment.
This includes young jobseekers, long-term unemployed and those with disabilities where reasonable adjustment may be required.
The awards are being supported by the Perth and Kinross Employment Connections, Perth and Kinross Employability Network, the Federation of Small Businesses, Perthshire Chamber of Commerce and the Perthshire Advertiser.
In nominating the equestrian centre Wayne Smith, of the council’s employment support team, explained: “In 2013 I was asked to support a young lady with a learning disability to find paid employment in her local area.
“Rachel has a keen interest in horses, volunteers at the Dundee Riding for the Disabled and is herself a keen rider.
“We decided to approach Inchcoonans Equestrian to see if they would be able to offer a work experience to Rachel to give her a taste of a real working stable and livery yard.
“This was with the hope that Rachel may be able to gain some experience which would give her something valuable to put on her CV.
“I spoke to the owner and she could not have been more accommodating.
“Despite having never employed or worked with anyone with a learning disability before, Carol was extremely open and embraced the idea.
Mr Smith continued: “I took Rachel along to meet Carol and her team and they were so welcoming. They showed us around the yard and introduced Rachel to everyone.
“Before we knew it Carol and her staff had arranged everything. They offered up training to Rachel, provided her with a buddy person to work alongside her, arranged a full induction and provided her with all the clothing and equipment she would need.
“This may seem like the norm for an employer to do this with all employees as standard and indeed it should be. However, I am very aware that in the main it is not.
“My job involves speaking to many, many employers and regularly I come across those who would not entertain employing anyone with a disability. Or those who have additional challenges in finding employment for many reasons, including the current financial climate, not having the time to spend training someone up, not understanding the support available or having had a bad experience in the past.
“This thankfully is not always the case and most definitely not the case at Inchoonans.”
After working two days per week and learning new skills for 12 weeks with support, Carol approached Mr Smith and said she was so impressed by Rachel that she wanted to take her on a permanent paid contract.
Mr Smith added: “I asked Rachel and her mum, who of course were absolutely ecstatic. Rachel had at last managed to get a paid job and start earning her own money.
“What this means to families cannot be described and is the reason I do what I do. Independence, a sense of value, respect, being part of a team, financial reasons, all of this comes with employment – which sometimes we can all take for granted but is very hard to get with a learning disability.”
Carol has now provided a skills development programme for adults with learning disabilities, where weekly groups of people go along to Inchcoonans with support staff and learn skills such as mucking out, filling hay nets, feeding horses, lunging, painting and gardening.