Adam Stallwood

Trainee-turned-tutor, The Toolshed

With his tutoring job, former trainee Adam Stallwood is a long way from leaving school at 16 with few qualifications and little direction. “I didn’t really have a good vision for where I would go in the future,” the 24-year-old from Wycombe recalls.

Seeing a friend’s success, Stallwood joined The Toolshed traineeship programme with New Meaning, gaining experience and focus. “I really had no practical experience at all,” he says. “Learning these skills and trades gives you more of a disciplined mindset.”

Before Stallwood was given the opportunity to teach trainees with

The Toolshed – a dream that he’d harboured before he received his

GCSE results – he worked for four years in the painting and decorating trade.

He values the opportunity The

Toolshed gave him to find a path

– and knew that there was a chance of employment at the end of the training course. “But you have to have the right attitude,” he stresses.