June Challenge: 7. First Job

7. First Job:
I volunteered at a youth centre from the age of 16 for about a year, which I loved. From a young age, I knew I wanted to work with children and the aim was to become a teacher when I was older and so volunteering at a youth centre was the perfect thing for me. I absolutely loved it and the youth centre I worked at was in the middle of a fairly rough estate and so I felt like I was making a difference with working there. After about a year, they offered me a job that was just once a week but it was my first paid job and considering it was something that I had chosen to do without being paid, when I did get paid for doing the same thing, it felt like a dream come true.
My official job title was Play Worker and my duties only existed of setting up the youth centre with activities and games, supervising and making sure the children were behaving and doing as they were asked, providing drinks and a snack and then at the end, dismissing and tidying up- practically a small teacher in the making. It was great and I did that for about a year and a half before I had to quit to go to Uni. It really set me up for getting onto my PGCE course and finally becoming a teacher! I think getting a job at a young age or volunteering really opens your eyes to what life is like and gives you a little bit more independence- it's such a good experience to have and I recommend children to go and try it even if they don't keep at it because it really does give you some life skills!