I'm Michael and I volunteered at Glasgow Wood in the workshop, warehouse and in the van.

Building confidence

I came to Glasgow Wood so I could build more confidence to be ready for work. Getting to know all the staff and volunteers at Glasgow Wood was really helpful for getting me speaking to loads of different people I didn’t know at first. This really got me feeling confident and ready for a job where I’d be working with people I’ve never met before.

I’ve helped in the workshop building products, and I also in the timber yard and warehouse moving bales of timber around and helping out with deliveries and collections.

For 6 months I was taken on for the paid placement opportunity with Glasgow Guarantee where I was in the workshop building furniture. I learnt a lot and really enjoyed it. But when I had forklift training it was helping in the warehouse and with deliveries that I enjoyed most.

Experience & training

Spending time in the workshop on placement was great, I learnt so much. Building things with your own hands and seeing the finished piece just makes you feel so good. Like, I’ve made that!

But when Peter from Edrington [a company Glasgow Wood has a long-standing partnership with] started running forklift training it was so good to be able to help with moving more wood around in the timber yard and warehouse.

Moving on to employment

I’m now a production operative in a food production & distribution warehouse, so I’m moving pallets of really cold food around a giant fridge basically. So to have a real forklift qualification from Glasgow Wood really helped me to get this job.

I’m part of the distribution team getting each food outlets order together ready to be delivered by the lorries, making sure they all get the right quantities of what they ordered. It’s amazing, the lorries actually have built in fridges AND freezers!

This is my workwear which is super thermal and insulated, which you’d hope for considering we’re working in a giant fridge all day!

It’s not all plain sailing though. Dropping a tray of food happens to everyone at some point, but some people drop more than others. The first time I did it it was two trays of sausage rolls… it’s a shame because it just all has to go in the bin! But nobody’s perfect, so you don’t get in really bad trouble.

Something personal to remember us by

As a volunteer you also get to make something for yourself. I needed a bedside table so that’s what I did for my volunteer project. It’s nothing crazy but it’s so good to have a table next to my bed now!