Helen: Working with people I like

7 February 2023

Helen works at Lily&Lime, one of Minstead Trust’s social enterprises in Portsmouth. In the café, she’s learned key customer service, food prep skills and values where her apprenticeship will take her in life. She’s certainly confident and chatty, as many of Lily&Lime’s customers can attest to. She also recently spoke to 400 people at the Shaping Portsmouth event about her journey into employment.

When we spoke to Helen, she told us: ‘I like working at Lily&Lime because I like the people I work with, I also like getting paid and I like the fact that I’m getting help to find a job after I finish’.

Helen is on Minstead Trust’s supported apprenticeship programme, one of our work and training programmes for people with learning disabilities, autism and other additional needs. The apprenticeship programme, delivered in partnership with Smart Training and Recruitment, takes on a blended learning approach of in-person and virtual learning. Our apprentices take on paid roles and learn a combination of customer service and functional skills over a period of 12 to 18 months.

Watch Helen’s video outlining why she loves working at Lily&Lime: Helen: Liking the people I work with at Lily&Lime

You can find out about some of our other apprentices here: Apprenticeship stories | Minstead Trust