Falkirk's Bethany is King's Trust rising star
A teenager from Falkirk has been named a rising star after she turned her life around despite dropping out of school with no qualifications.
Nineteen-year-old Bethany is now working with a charity helping other young people, using her experiences to help build brighter futures.
She picked up the trophy at the recent King’s Trust and TK Maxx & Homesense Awards which recognise young people who have succeeded against the odds, improved their chances in life and had a positive impact on their local community.
Bethany scooped the L’Oréal Paris Rising Star Award, which recognises a young person who, having built up their confidence and skills, has overcome barriers to secure and recently start employment or education or training.
School was a difficult time for Bethany, due to experiencing bullying and struggling with anxiety. Due to her anxiety, she stopped engaging in class and eventually was put onto a reduced timetable. By the end of fourth year, Bethany was ready to leave school. She left with no qualifications and no idea what she was going to do.
Bethany struggled to find work once she left school and, due to her lack of qualifications, began to feel hopeless with no direction. She was helping collect money for her dad’s window cleaning business but knew she wanted more from life.
When her sister was referred to The King’s Trust, Bethany came along to see what it was all about. After a one-to-one with a youth development lead, Bethany signed up to the
12-week team programme to help her develop and improve her confidence and soft skills. She quickly settled into the group and found her place and naturally took a leadership role, as well as getting involved with all activities during the programme.
When it came time for work placement week, Bethany shared her desire to work in childcare and her youth worker suggested working with Go! Youth Trust, supporting summer activities with young people aged ten-15 years old. Bethany’s people skills really shone through, and she was confidently taking the lead in running group activities, actively checking in with the young people and keeping the young people safe during trips.
Go! Youth Trust were delighted by her skills and ability to engage with young people and offered her a position as a trainee youth worker. She quickly became an integral part of the team and took the opportunity to engage with as much training and development as possible and is just about to complete her Youth Work Modern Apprenticeship.
Bethany now works full time with the trust and is an assistant team leader.
She said: “Before starting The King’s Trust Team programme I had no idea what I wanted to do and didn’t think I would be able to find the confidence or gain the qualifications to do it. I’m now in a job I love with a clear path to a brighter future.”
“I feel really proud to have won the Rising Star Award in Scotland. There was a time that I thought I would never be ready to have a job. Now I’m doing a job I love and helping other young people like me build their confidence and skills.”
Three in four young people helped by The King’s Trust in the past five years have moved into work, training or education.