From Participant to Team Member: Welcome to the Team Rhys
After one of the busiest years for Digital Voice, we are delighted to be able to expand our staff team. This week we caught up with Admin Apprentice, Rhys Williams, a recent addition to the team, but not, it turns out, a newcomer to the organisation.
Rhys is from High Spen in Gateshead, very handy for Digital Voice HQ, and is so far enjoying his new job:
“I’ve just started as an admin apprentice. I just do whatever jobs land on my desk and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have edited some Geostories which can be seen on the Digital Voice Youtube page and other socials, I have helped to transcribe interviews and if anyone has gotten a certificate from Digital Voice in the last month or two, I laminated it!”
Despite his young age, which he reminds me is at least half everyone else's at Digital Voice (this is not true, Ben and Chanise are definitely still young, as for the rest of us, there’s AI), Rhys has already got quite a history with the organisation:
“When I was 11, Digital Voice came to my primary school to do a Geostories and it was my class they worked with. I still remember walking around the streets with Ronnie and taking photos of old buildings as well as learning film making. I never knew how much I would be involved with Digital Voice that day. [Then] I worked a week on work experience around a year ago.”
For Rhys, at the very start of his career, this opportunity has meant more than a job to him:
“Before [this role], I was spending 24 hours a day at home. I was still fully enrolled as a student but I was unable to attend school and even leave the house due to suffering from both mental and physical ill health. When I got invited by Digital Voice to work on some projects for them I was over the moon and was eager to start and get my life back on track.”
It’s clear that this new environment is having a positive effect on Rhys who is already a valued member of the team:
“Compared to my old school life (...) my colleagues and friends here have made me feel so at home. It is just such a lovely environment.”
“Rhys did work experience with us and we realised how adept he was with technology, and such a canny lad. The hope now is that he can do an apprenticeship with us. It’s important to me that young people from the North East get the support they need to enter our industry, especially when they’re as talented and keen as Rhys!”
- Julie Nicholson, Managing Director
Welcome to the team Rhys!
To see the kind of projects Rhys mentions in his interview click here.