An opinion piece by Angharad Elin Evans, Regional Skills Partnership
Last week, the North Wales Regional Skills Partnership hosted a social media campaign called ‘Pob Cam’, which means ‘every step’ in Welsh. Our aim was to prove that no matter which path you choose to take in your education or your career, there is no wrong path – and I think we did just that!
Although this was our first time undergoing a campaign of this nature, the response we received was overwhelming. It was incredibly encouraging to see how many individuals were willing to share an insight into their working lives regardless of how long or short their careers have been.
Sharing a range of stories from all backgrounds, the campaign was filled with celebrations of successful careers and inspiring stories from our partners including Department of Work and Pesnions, Federation of Small Businesses and M-SParc. We were even lucky enough to hear from ‘Heno’ presenters Owain Jones and Elin Fflur!
The stories that were shared have shown that no career is linear, with the biggest career changes coming as a result of seizing opportunities and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. The ‘Pob Cam’ campaign was a great opportunity to bring together these stories with an aim to normalise changing our career or returning to education at any age.
A notable story came from Sarah Schofield who started her journey in the world of work ‘selling donuts’ to later become the Director of ‘Adra’. Sarah’s journey shows that no matter where we start our journey, it doesn’t determine our end career, as long as we take the opportunity to learn and grow from the experiences we gain
It has been great to see so many individuals come together to advocate for embracing our career paths, especially as our economy recovers post-COVID, it felt fitting to be able to reflect on our careers so far through our ‘Pob Cam’ campaign. We wanted to open a conversation that celebrated everyone’s individual achievements and milestones as every step counts and I think we achieved this as there was such a diverse sharing of stories and careers.
After a successful week of hearing so many inspirational stories, we’ve already received some positive feedback, praising the importance of sharing our work history to remind individuals that there is no wrong path and every step counts for our future. We hope we’ve managed to inspire individuals who are unsure of the path they want to take. Let’s hope we can bring back the campaign again next year with the aim to be bigger and better!