Fernando has a University degree in Biology but he’s a long term unemployed He lives in Granada. He is 40 years old and worked as an environment educator. Five years ago, he was fired from the company where he was working. At the same time, his wife left him and a very hard time started in his life. He had neither a job or a family. During this period, he looked for a new job but he couldn’t find anything (he thinks that he was too old to be employed under contract).
While looking for a job, he faced many in difficulties being flexible and motivated, but the most important one was that he was told he was “too old” to start working in a new company.
When Fernando started the course, he had a lot of expectations about it (he hoped it was the right moment). It was a new experience where he could meet new people and find some new opportunities.
He had very important expectations about the course when the meeting in group started. He was surprised to discover that this course could give him new opportunities to find a job.
Fernando recognised that before the Job-Yes project, he used to apply for a lot of work offers although he knew he wasn’t the best candidate and most of times he didn´t receive answers about his candidature. Now, after the piloting of the Job-Yes project, he thinks soft skills are one of the most important parts when applying for a job. He set up his CV again and wrote an Action Plan where he designed his future career.
Fernando describes his experience as a nice opportunity to improve soft skills related to several competences. He thinks that the best part of the process was when the facilitator told him about soft skills and the OERs related to entrepreneurship. Concerning the tools, Fernando thinks that they were very useful and interesting to learn; he also said that it is a great idea to have the online platform to work at home with the project. Fernando says that the platform is the right way to help unemployed people and it is easy to use.
Fernando thinks the meeting with the facilitator was very interesting, the facilitator taught us about the soft skills, how to use the e-learning platform and later in the next meetings, he helped us for a better understanding of the results acquired during the Job-Yes experience; he gave answers to any of our question about soft skills or in my case, about my career development.
What did you like most?
In my opinion the best tool are the OERs especially the entrepreneurship related OERs, because during this course, I found I have the opportunity to start my own business based on the soft skills I learned about entrepreneurship.
What was most interesting for you?
The most interesting thing for me was to discover the importance of soft skills to find/ create new job opportunities. Especially the soft skills related to entrepreneurship.
What was most useful for you?
In my opinion all the tools were very useful, though the self-need analysis was the most helpful to me tool because it gave me the opportunity to check my level on different soft skills.
What was new for you?
The importance of the soft skills when finding a job, the necessity to evaluate myself and to improve my competences. I think that all the tools were very useful, they were new for me and the best thing was that I could use them at home with the online model.
Fernando is satisfied with the results of the project training course because since he started Job-Yes piloting, he has changed his view about searching for a job and self-employment. Nowadays, Fernando is working on his Action Plan because he wants to start his own business as environmental consultant for SMEs, he says that he must to continue learning with the OERs especially in order to develop the competence related to the “Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship”. Moreover, he thinks he must be proactive in order to be successful in his new challenge.
Fernando believes that Job-Yes is a great opportunity to learn more and more. He thinks that Job-Yes helped him to open his eyes to new opportunities. In conclusion, he thinks that the project helped him both on a personal and professional level.
The main achievement of this course to Fernando is that now he wants to continue his job searching through the participation in some networking meeting and some courses about entrepreneurship.
The main success in this course for Fernando is that he is encouraged to start a new business.
He wants to improve his profile with some entrepreneurs training courses and with the participation in a new networking for entrepreneurs in Granada.
Fernando is in love with the Job-Yes project; he thinks it is a great opportunity to know yourself better and to improve your soft skills, necessary in a lot of life situations. Fernando also thinks that he wants to recommend this course to his friends and family because he thinks it can be very helpful for them.
Finally, Fernando thinks that Job-Yes project, could be useful in many aspect of our life as soft skills can help us in relationships with people, in our workplace and so on. In conclusion, I believe that by improving our soft skills we will be better people.
The interview was carried out by the facilitator of the training: Francisco Javier Morales Luque, Defoin.