Craig's on the road to a new career
23rd April 2008
Craig Potts with his manager Susan Palk 33-year-old Craig Potts, who has diabetes, had worked for Remploy for eight years in various shop floor and administrative roles. He was keen to forward his career in administration and had considered moving into mainstream employment before he learnt that Remploy’s London Road site would be closing as part of the company’s modernisation programme. The programme will enable Remploy to increase the number of disabled people it supports into mainstream employment to 20,000 per year by 2012.
A relative told Craig of a vacancy for an administrator at Newcastle-under-Lyme firm, WJ Roadmarkings, which specialises in the installation of temporary road markings on major traffic management systems. The company had recently secured a major new contract and needed someone to provide support in all areas of administration, from invoicing to maintaining health and safety records.
Craig’s Remploy employment advisor, Susan Edwards, accompanied him to an initial meeting with the company’s managers and arranged for him to attend a work trial there, so he could experience the role and decide whether he was suited to it. After the work trial proved successful, Craig was offered a permanent position with the company earlier this month.
“Aside from the pay increase, the things I’m enjoying most about the role are the fact that it’s a lot more involved and I’m always busy,” said Craig. “I’ve already had some in-house training and am hoping to attend college later this year to further develop my skills.
“Making the move from Remploy has been easy and my new managers are helpful and understanding about the fact that I need to make regular hospital visits due to my health condition.”
“Craig was brought in initially to help us administrate the contract, but since starting the job, he’s taken on extra responsibilities,” said his manager, Susan Palk.
“His eye for detail is a real asset in his job and he’s very well motivated, so now works largely unsupervised. He’s well liked by his colleagues and has become a valued member of the team.”
