Footballer kicks off a new career

Scottish athlete Kirsty MacDonald knows all about challenges. She overcame all to compete in the GB Special Olympics and now she is pursuing her dream job and kicking off a new career.

With the help of Working Links, Yoker Housing Association, the Hahn Practice Scotland and Opportunities Glasgow-West the 20-year-old has broken down the barriers to make her way into the construction industry - a field that is notoriously difficult for females to break into.

She has worked closely with our Glasgow team and is now taking up a construction trainee position with Glasgow-based construction business, Cruden Building and Renewals.

When we first approached Kirsty, who lives in Yoker, she had been jobless for more than a year. She harboured an ambition to work in the construction industry but worried that it was beyond her reach and wasn’t sure how to achieve her goals.

She had little work experience but above all struggled to progress due to a lifelong

battle with dyslexia, which hampered her efforts to successfully apply for jobs. We assigned Kirsty a personal consultant, Craig McAllister, who worked with her to overcome the barriers that prevented her from finding and getting a job.