Claire

My name is Claire, and I first started at Out of the Blue as a trainee at the end of 2017.

Initially I came in for 1 day a week, and did a bit of work in the studio for a couple of hours each week. At first it was definitely challenging for me. I didn’t have much in the way of confidence at the time, and I tend to be a bit of an anxious person.

Before I started my traineeship, I didn’t really think I was capable of succeeding at anything. I had dropped out of highschool in 2015 and hadn’t been in education for a while, so I didn’t have any sort of routine or a clear direction that I wanted to head in.

At Out of the Blue I found a great opportunity to challenge myself a bit. It was good to have somewhere to be every week, and the studio has always been a really nice, relaxed environment to be in.

I surprised myself a lot when I first started. Everything I had to do was explained really well, and I found that I was quite capable of doing the work. Being able to complete even small tasks was a big achievement for me, and another small step towards building my confidence. I didn’t have any idea what Riso Printing was at first, but it was a really exciting and interesting experience to be able to learn.

Finding something that I enjoyed, and actually did well, had a big impact on my confidence. I definitely needed a lot of help at first, but over time I’ve been able to start doing a lot more on my own, and I’ve become much more confident in my own abilities.

Being offered a summer job at the end of my traineeship was a huge deal for me. It was a big achievement for me to get my first paid job, and a huge step in the right direction for me.

“I’ve been working at Out of the Blue now since June 2018, and I’m incredibly proud of myself for the hard work that I’ve done. It’s got me thinking that there’s probably a lot more that I’m capable of if I try hard enough.”

I have a lot more motivation now to try and go for the things I really want to do, and with the part-time job I’m able to fund my way through a college evening class, which wouldn’t have been possible before. Once I pass my Nat 5 Maths I hope to be able to meet the entry requirements for the course I really want to do, computer programming and digital forensics.