"Ok, let's go. My name is Eric Harper and I have been working with Rob at Open Door Internet for a few months now and I have to say, it's been incredible. As a teenager I taught myself a fair amount about HTML and JavaScript just really for my own amusement, never thinking that my knowledge would help me to achieve anything.
I have tried before to go back to college or get into some other training courses but the financial commitment required has always left me stuck, and the free skill courses available were so basic to me that they didn't help me learn anything new, exciting or even useful to me. After I failed to get any formal qualifications after school, I never found it easy to get work. I spent a lot of time in a bad place and eventually became homeless, which lead to me being on benefits for nearly three years and unable to work at all for two. Most employers see a gap in a CV of more than a few months and they'll just chuck it away
Then, a few months ago, a mutual friend suggested that I contact Rob about joining his scheme to help the long term unemployed. So that's what I did.
Since working with Rob, I've gained not only insight into the new working world of websites but also started to learn about new languages and differences in coding that have changed since I last did anything remotely similar. It's been amazing to be given an opportunity to learn more of something that I'm really passionate about. My abilities have greatly improved, as well as my potential employment prospects, and I owe it all to Rob and his fantastic program.
I believe I still have a way to go before I'm 'employable' in the web development world but I have every confidence in what I'm learning and not only that, thanks to Rob I have confidence in my own skills."
