Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog and today’s blog as you can see the name of the new blog post and it’s called my traineeship from hell ? and it does sound a bit harsh but this is from my experience of what happened since I left FWT along with the interviews that I went through from companies and even went onto a traineeship programme from Capita and I’ll be giving you my pure honest opinion about the traineeship on I went through so before you start reading this blog post I want you to read the disclaimer first before you start reading the blog post so grab a snack ?, get really comfortable ?, because this blog post is going to be a really long and interesting post ☕️?☕️?.
(DISCLAIMER: Please note that this is just my honest opinion on the experience that I had with Capita, what I went throughout the traineeship programme and my personal feelings about the traineeship, not the company altogether. I will do the best I can to keep it balanced on both positive and negative aspects on my experience but the majority of this blog post contains some harsh criticism on the experience that I went through on the interviews and the traineeship that I went to as well and I apologise to you if you find any of my opinions too hard to swallow.)
After leaving FWT and going for interviews from companies that don’t want me to work for them, due to my autism being a barrier for them instead of a benefit (their loss, my gain ?), it was time for me to move on with my life and I decided to go on a traineeship with Capita ?. But before I explain to you about what happened during the traineeship with Capita, I wanted to tell you about the interviews that I went through from the vacancies that I applied for during my time with FWT, which I forgot to mention it on my previous blog post (sorry for not mentioning it on my previous blog post ?) two of those companies that I went for an interview with are both based in Birmingham and both of those vacancies are based on customer service and both of them require me to do evening time as well.
From that point I wasn’t so sure if it was the right job for me, because I still need to make some time for my social life as well so I can have a balanced life with both work and social along with the terms and conditions of those vacancies in Birmingham and I didn’t get any of the two vacancies ?. After failing the two interviews I went to I went towards an agency that deals with admin, customer service etc and I got myself an appointment with the agency so they can test me up there with my English and Maths and my English results was okay but my Maths was a little so so, but luckily for me, I already got the qualifications in English and Maths that meet up to their standards.
I also mentioned to them that I have autism as well as informing them that it’s very mild too and I was told by them not to mention about it to the interviewer. After coming out of the appointment, I thought to myself “why can’t I mention to the interviewer about my mild autism? I mean they have a right to know about it along with the fact that any disability or difficulty that an individual has, it must be taken seriously, no matter what it is nor how it affects me on a daily basis.”
After I had the meeting with them and going through the tests, the recruitment consultant showed me some of the vacancies through email and I applied to one of the vacancies from the email that was sent to me and in a couple of days later I got a call from the agency and they told me that I got an interview with one of the companies for an apprenticeship. I went to interview with a massive bag, because after the interview I went straight over to work before I leave and the manager for the company I had the interview with was pretty much a nice guy but at the same time he’s a bit sceptical especially with some of the questions that that I answered didn’t come out right for him along with the fact that I told him about my mild autism he didn’t see it though as a benefit instead he looked at it as more of a barrier for him. Obviously I didn’t get the apprenticeship from the company and I was disheartened not because I didn’t get the apprenticeship. I was disheartened by the fact that he didn’t see my autism as a benefit for him which is discriminating me as the autistic woman.
After failing to get their apprenticeship from the company that discriminates autistic people, I then went on to a traineeship from Capita and when I first got into the traineeship course, The trainer was barely there and we had to wait for a really long time to wait for him to arrive and will kept waiting and waiting until eventually he wasn’t going to turn up so I decided to ditch it. The next day we arrived at the traineeship place and finally the trainer had arrived to the building. The traineeship started of bad when it comes to getting out the smart phones out and I was very impatient and getting frustrated at that time for waiting a website to load and eventually I wanted to take a breather and walk away from it obviously from his standards and the ICE building standards it wasn’t acceptable to do that but although there were some bumps on the road but I still managed to get along well with some people who were in the traineeship.
However during my 5 weeks with the traineeship programme, there have been more negative than positive and I will do the best I can to balance them out between the two and one of them was on the favouritism between myself and a few girls in there. Especially with one person who was given the special treatment from the trainer of the programme majority of the time and doing the work that the trainer was doing so she could become a trainer herself at Capita instead of working in another company that are deals with customer service and the actual company is called Transport For London (TFL and talk about an ultimate teachers pet ?) which is connected to the Capita company, myself and the other students went on a tour around the building on how the company works.
While I was doing my experience on the traineeship with Capita, I have to do some of the work at home until some time in the afternoon my dad came home and told me that my mum is at the hospital and also informed me that my mum and brother got into an car accident and when I heard the tragic news, my heart just dropped down and I was even in tears, but at the same time I was worried about them “Are they alright?” “How bad are they hurt?” When I arrived at A&E of the hospital, my brother was already there waiting to see what happens next and I tried to give him a hug, he pushed me away from him and didn’t even want to acknowledge my sympathy for him and was even beating himself up mentally for what he had done to himself and mum as well as my uncle being there as well to comfort me.
My brother suffered from a swollen heel. However my mum got most of the damage in which she got a fractured spine and has two slightly fractured fingers on her right hand along with a swollen shoulder. When I got home from my visit to the hospital and my aunt decided to ring telling her about what happened and the soon as I told her about the accident she got in the car took the girls with her and got everything sorted out as she drove herself all the way from Slough to Coventry just to see me and everyone else who has been affected from the incident. The next day I’ve picked up the phone and decided to call the trainer up and explained what happened and he too was actually shocked about what happened to my mum and when I returned back into the classroom, the trainer asked me if my mum was alright and I informed him on the condition of my mum and my response to that question towards him was that “she suffered from a fractured spine and two swollen fingers, but apart from the two major injuries she has, she’s alive and well.”
I knew my mum was a tough cookie and I also knew that she was going to be alright and I explained to him that “she’s a tough cookie and she’s going to be alright” I was remaining positive from the tragic incident that happened to my mum, but the trainer response was “she’s not going to be alright, she’s at the hospital” and when the other girl who was present in the classroom (aka teachers pet ?) heard about what happened to my mum, she started questioning it too and asked me two questions and one of them was “what happened to your mum?” and I explained to her about what happened and then she asked me “who was driving at the time of the incident?” My reply was “My brother” and her response was “you’ve got bad parents” my response back to her was “well at least my parents are still together” as for her step sister by the way was a complete spoiled brat had an argument with a step sister and I tried to tell her to get on with her work and she decided to walk away from the classroom after telling her off about focusing on her work and not arguing with her step sister.
She even came up with an excuse on the fact that she wasn’t arguing with her sister and she was discussing loudly with her instead ?. Apart from all the negative experience that I had to go through along with capita traineeship and the car accident that happened to my mum and brother, I’ve learnt a lot when I was on the traineeship and even made some good friends and memories to remember as well as learning what the company has to offer from TFL and I’ve learned about the expanded version on customer service and how it works in the first place along with some advise on becoming a mentor/coach and the the support I needed in order to move forward too. As for my mum and brother, well you have to wait until the next blog post to find out what happens next.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. I’m so sorry for the blog post being so long. Please stay tuned for the next post and don’t forget to leave a comment below on my blog post and spread the word out about my blog too. ???