News

Employment Vision Project - Team Profile - Stuart Haxell

My name is Stuart, and I am blind. I graduated with a Master’s in marketing in 2018. I am a National Blind Tennis Champion and have two blackbelts in karate. These are some of the things I have done in my life up to this point. The one thing that I have struggled the hardest with is finding employment that works for me.

Until now.

The Employment Vision Project is an initiative being run by Irish Guide Dogs for Blind with the aim of getting blind people into work.

The organisers of the project speak to you to find out your needs for employment. Do you need training with technology? They will try to provide that. Do you want help with interview skills and or CV writing? They will help with that. Do you want to go into education instead of employment? They can help with that too.

Even better, several of the people running the project have a visual impairment themselves so they can relate to what we need to work successfully in a company. They have been already able to get two people into permanent employment and have gotten myself a placement working for Irish Guide Dogs for Blind’s for a few months.

The co-ordinators organise talks with other organisations of interest; for example, one of the most recent online talks was with the organisation Ahead. I found the talk to be fantastic and highly recommend attending it if you choose to participate in the Employment Vision project.

I have made use of Irish Guide Dogs for Blind’s services several times in the past; they helped connect me with one of my best friend’s, Elmo my Guide Dog who recently retired. They couldn’t have made a better match and on the first try too. So, if they can bring the same ability, they bring to matching dogs to those who need them why not give them a chance with allowing them to help with matching you with a job that would fit you too.

Please give the project a look and if you feel it is something that can work for you, please give it a chance.

Find out more about our Employment Vision Project or EmploymentVision@GuideDogs.ie.