Never too late to learn, says Paul

Embargoed to 0001 Monday April 9.

File photo dated 15/07/09 of a person passing a Job Centre Plus as an extra 100,000 people will be without a job before the end of the summer and unemployment will not fall for 18 months, according to a new study. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday April 9, 2012. An analysis of jobless figures by the IPPR think tank showed that unemployment will not peak until at least September, with more people expected to join the dole queue in the coming months. The North West, London, Yorkshire and Humberside and the East of England will see the highest increases in unemployment, while the jobless total is predicted to fall in the West Midlands, Northern Ireland and the South West. The IPPR said it expected 50,000 more men and a similar number of women will become unemployed this year as public sector jobs continue to be cut, while over 40,000 of those becoming jobless will be under the age of 25. See PA story INDUSTTRY Unemployment. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wi — Embargoed to 0001 Monday April 9. File photo dated 15/07/09 of a person passing a Job Centre Plus as an extra 100,000 people will be without a job before the end of the summer and unemployment will not fall for 18 months, according to a new study. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday April 9, 2012. An analysis of jobless figures by the IPPR think tank showed that unemployment will not peak until at least September, with more people expected to join the dole queue in the coming months. The North West, London, Yorkshire and Humberside and the East of England will see the highest increases in unemployment, while the jobless total is predicted to fall in the West Midlands, Northern Ireland and the South West. The IPPR said it expected 50,000 more men and a similar number of women will become unemployed this year as public sector jobs continue to be cut, while over 40,000 of those becoming jobless will be under the age of 25. See PA story INDUSTTRY Unemployment. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wi

If you are out of work and feel like giving up you should take a leaf out of Paul Smith’s book.

Fifty-year-old Paul lost his occupation of 25 years as a furniture salesman just weeks before Christmas.

Paul, of Mansfield Road, Alfreton, applied for 240 jobs in three weeks without a single response.

The Alfreton man was ready to throw the towel in but instead he decided to re-train as a barber - a job he had always wanted to do.

“It was hard,” said Paul. “I was thinking, ‘oh my god, am I ever going to get a job again with all these young ones up-to-date with computers.

“I have never signed on in my life - I started work on a building site when I was 15.”

Paul said the experience of getting knocked back so many times left him feeling quite down and physically ill, but luckily a breakthrough came.

He had always been interested in barbering and decided to reach for his ambition before it was too late.

So he accessed a training course in Leicester with help from Alfreton Job Centre and was promised a job at Mansfield’s Salon 34 if he completed the course.

“I found it quite easy because you have to be able to talk to people and I am used to that from working in retail,” said Paul.

“At 50-plus I thought I was too old but this is not the case - it is never to late to learn.”

He now works at the Mansfield hairdresser as a barber.

Not only that, he has also been offered the chance to work as a trainer for the Leicester-based British Barbers’ Association.

Said Paul: “So from thinking I would never get a job at 52 years old I have now got a job and I am starting to train to be a trainer.

“There is work for us oldies and you can do it. You just have to put yourself out really.

“I thought I would never get another job and it was soul-destroying but this has really changed my life.”