When Ahmed’s employment ended, Harbour Homes’ Tenancy Support and Community Works teams stepped in to help him and his family.
Ahmed had been a skilled upholsterer for nine years in Sudan and Liberia before moving to Edinburgh. As he didn’t have any formal qualifications or references, he had spent the last two years working at a warehouse, which didn’t renew his temporary contract.
After he received Harbour Homes’ new tenants service email, Ahmed replied saying he needed help. Tenancy Sustainment Officer Leo Paredes contacted Ahmed and visited his home where he saw the beautiful laminate flooring that Ahmed had fitted. Ahmed shared his story of being a skilled upholsterer, so Leo referred him to Community Works to help find work in this field.
Ahmed and his one-year-old child visited Jane Whiting, Employability Office with Community Works, to discuss his skills and issues with finding employment. He was already working on improving his English with a course at Edinburgh College and given his young family, didn’t have the funds or time to return to studying upholstery, which was only available outside Edinburgh.
Jane contacted local upholsterers seeking help and potential employment opportunities. Victoria (Vic) from VM Furnishing, who teaches upholstery classes alongside upholstering furniture, offered advice on apprenticeships and working for small businesses. This was particularly useful as Ahmed wasn’t at a point of being able to set himself up as self-employed or start his own business.
A few weeks later, Vic got back in touch with Jane. She had taken on another workshop as she had too many commissions for her current space and needed to hire someone, so thought Ahmed may be interested. After visiting the workshop and showing Vic his upholstery skills and getting on well together, Vic helped Ahmed set himself up as a self-employed upholsterer through HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) and Business Gateway to help with her extra work in the new workshop space. Ahmed will eventually have a website so he can take on his own work and the pair now have studios next to each other with linked offices so they can easily catch up.
Vic said:
“Having Ahmed to work with is great, because I now have someone to bounce ideas off, help when I have too much on and he brings a different set of skills and a calming outlook. Once I’ve trained him, he will take on his own customers as well as helping me out. Lovely guy, glad to help him get started.”
Ahmed commented:
“Thank you for introducing me to Vic, I’m happy.”