The Joco Interiors team have been celebrating this week following the success of retail apprentice Kacey Barker who won North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College’s Student of the Year 16-18 award, and who was also awarded the prestigious principal’s STAR Student of the Year award.
“Kacey started with Joco back in 2017, coming to us with a number of issues, including severe anxiety,” Joco Interiors’ owner Jo Williams told GiftsandHome.net. “She was lacking in self confidence and often struggled with instructions. Kacey also suffers from epilepsy and memory problems, caused by an illness when she was younger, which added to the obstacles we had to overcome. In addition, she had also failed her GCSE Maths and English.”
Continued Jo: “However, during her time with us, she has worked hard to overcome many of these issues. With constant coaching and mentoring from the team, she has grown into a confident member that we can rely on to complete her daily tasks. She has since gone on to pass her English GCSE and is due to sit her maths exam shortly. Kacey has improved massively since starting at Joco, and is due to complete her Level 2 retail apprenticeship in the New Year.”
Kacey was awarded two trophies which are taking pride of place in the front window of Joco Interiors, and two certificates which she is framing to hang up at home. “The whole team are immensely proud of her, and we see a difference in her every day as she continues to grow in confidence,” added Jo.
On the topic of mental health, along with other business leaders, Andrew Goodacre, ceo of the British Independent Retailers Association (bira) has co-signed a letter to PM Theresa May, calling for an amendment to the Health & Safety in the workplace regulations to include provisions for mental health.
“We are fully in support of retailers getting greater knowledge of dealing with mental issues as part of their First Aid training,” stated Andrew.
Top: The myriad of awards that Joco Interiors has received as a team this year, including a Greats 2018 trophy as Best Newcomer Midlands, North & Scotland. Taking pride of place (centre) are Kacey Barker’s two awards from North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College.
