Developing employability skills – Bilge

Bilge was the oldest winner of our Thetford Youth Enterprise Challenge 2016/17. She has lived in England for 3 years and was born in Turkey. During this short time she has learnt to speak English with the support of Catch 22’s study programme and hopes to develop a career in hair dressing.

Bilge took part in our enterprise workshops in Thetford and attended a range of events to promote and sell anti-bullying t-shirts, which she and other young people designed.

The project encouraged Bilge to step out of her comfort zone and develop new skills and confidence in talking to members of the public. This was a big achievement for her as she told us at the beginning of the project that she wasn’t very confident about having a go at things that were new to her.

Through our workshops, Bilge was able to work on her public speaking and customer service skills and also learnt techniques for planning and pitching business ideas. These skills will prove invaluable as she begins to seek employment within a customer focussed environment.

“I feel more confident because we’ve done lots of selling and met many people.”