I’m Shupikai Makina; I’m a Recruitment Consultant/Administrator. We’re there to help managers, advise managers, go through the recruitment campaigns and basically get the right person for the job in post as soon as possible.

We recruit for all jobs basically in Lewisham Borough, that’s basically; nurses, administrators, clinical workers, we have people that are road sweepers, and we have people that are nursery officers. So, roughly probably about 70 to 80 people in a month.

Yes, they are actually surprised; my friends are definitely surprised of what I’m doing at the moment. To be honest, when I was in school I never took pride in my education and stuff. I was really going out there with my friends, having fun. It was basically a wake up call when I lost my granddad, it just made me think, the last thing he said to me was “you’re better than that” and that was just not me, I had to do something, I had to change. I wanted to be somebody. I wanted people to remember me for something, so it just made me turned around and I’ve met most of my friends out there and they’re still saying to me, “Oh my gosh! You’ve got a child now, what are you doing? You are working for Lewisham?” I’m loving the new me, improved me.

If I could do anything at all, probably start my own recruitment agency, recruiting young people, putting them in different departments in the council, or basically around the world really, trying to work in partnership with other people like, opening doors, to help young people and school leavers try to find job, because it’s really hard to find a job when you’re a young person and you haven’t got qualifications.