Young People Are Great - Spotlight on Hillcrest
Hillcrest are a local organisation helping to lead the way with their commitment to the Young Person’s Guarantee. They offer Modern Apprenticeships in various specialities, support the progression of young members of staff, run a panel group of 16–24-year-old employees and facilitate work experience placements for school pupils.As a result, we want to showcase how they value their young people, and highlight their successes and resilience.
“Hillcrest are delighted to be investing further in our young people. It is important to us that we can offer the opportunity for our young workforce to grow and develop their career paths. Not only that, we have found that as an organisation, working with young people brings new energy and perspective that generates new ideas and helps us think differently, and as a business, we need this.”
– Lesley Don – Director of corporate Services Hillcrest .
“I joined Hillcrest in March 2022 in their newly created role as Apprenticeship Development Officer. I feel this role is an exciting challenge for me and feel grateful to work for such a forward-thinking organisation who are fully investing in their young workforce to address skills shortages and succession planning.
Within my role I have the opportunity to facilitate Hillcrest’s young person’s group which meets every 6 weeks where I consult and canvass opinions from them to help shape future decision making for the organisation.
Should you wish to know more about my role or our organisation please do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing me on LEnglish@hillcresthomes.org.uk “
– Lesley English – Apprenticeship Development Officer
“I think the benefits of recruiting young people into our business is to give them a place to learn and to obtain a qualification while gaining the invaluable on the job experience.
Nothing beats real life situations – meeting people, learning with colleagues, using the systems, helping customers – putting the theory into practice.
And the benefits for Hillcrest is that we get to support and work with young people with fresh ideas, no limitations, bringing their knowledge and expertise, paving the way for innovation and collaboration.
I have seen the change in confidence and this is growing all the time for the young people we have recruited.”
– Sarah Duncan – Accounts Payable Team Leader
As part of the Young People Are Great campaign, we also want to highlight some success stories from Hillcrest’s young members of staff:
“My name is Laura Bremner and I am a Communications and Media Assistant at Hillcrest. When I left school I applied for a college course but decided that I would rather just go straight into work.
I saw an Apprenticeship in Business and Admin at Hillcrest and decided it would be a good first step in my career. From this I have moved into a job role that I am really interested in and hope that the skills I develop will help me take my next step.”
– Laura Bremner – Communications and Media Assistant
“My name is Lottie Ireland and my current role is Learning and Development Assistant for Hillcrest. Before this I was doing my SVQ2 Level 3 at Developing the Young Workforce Dundee and Angus, so I did my Modern Apprenticeship there and then got a job here as a Learning & Development Clerical Assistant.
Working with DYW was a tonne of experience and it really forced myself to be in situations I didn’t want to be in but were good situations for me to be in.”
– Lottie Ireland – Learning and Development Assistant
“I joined Hillcrest straight from 5th year at St Paul’s in Dundee. I joined Hillcrest in January 2022 working as a Finance Assistant Trainee, I am currently studying for my AAT level 2 in accounting. In the finance team I have worked between the account payable, receivable and the payroll teams. The work between all three teams has varied from processing invoices to raising invoices. Since joining in January I have really enjoyed my time here.”
– Dylan Austin – Finance Assistant Trainee