A 20-year-old with learning disabilities has landed a voluntary job at Lords homeware and DIY store, in Chorleywood.
Gregory Weston has started as a volunteer at Lords on Friday mornings and is settling in extremely well.
A student at Berks College of Agriculture near Maidenhead, local lad Gregory, who is non-verbal and uses sign language very effectively, is volunteering at the store in order to gain work experience for his CV.
He said: “I am learning where everything is in the store and help with pricing, shelf stacking and unloading deliveries.”
He will also be trained to use the till.
So far Gregory says he has found shoppers to be ‘extremely pleasant’ and he has already helped a lady customer to choose an iron.
One awkward customer asked for ‘pink and white striped paint,’ but fortunately, he was a friend, who had come in to tease Gregory.
Gregory hopes eventually to work as a delivery driver’s mate because, according to his mother Katharine, ‘he is DPD’s greatest fan.’
She said: “Gregory has been helped enormously by the attitude of his colleagues, in particular Lords’ MD Tilak Patel.”
Gregory works under the supervision of Lords’ staff member Donna Lawson, who is taught a new sign by Gregory each Friday and has already mastered the signs for ‘please,’ ‘thank you’ and ‘toilet.’
Like his colleagues, Gregory wears the shop’s uniform with pride and says he ‘really looks forward to Fridays and already feels part of the team’.
Mr Patel said: “Being non-verbal is nothing to worry about if you’re friendly and helpful and prepared to work hard, which Gregory is.”
0 Comments