Kevin Amarasinghe has won the Prince’s Trust London and South East Regional Breakthrough Award. We are so proud of Kevin; this is a massive honour and demonstrates Kevin’s progress and resilience that he developed while on the Team programme!
The criteria for this award are: Recognising the progress of young people who have developed new skills to enable them to make positive steps towards facing their challenges and stabilising their lives. Any individual supported by The Prince’s Trust who has built skills (such as confidence, communication, reliability, resilience, setting and achieving goals, working with others). The nominee should demonstrate that these new skills have enabled them to make positive steps (such as reducing drug/alcohol abuse or stopping offending behaviour) or move towards a positive destination (such as job centres, mental health support or another Prince’s Trust programme).
Kevin is now working towards his dream job of being a mechanic.
Although he found education challenging for a long time, Kevin is now back on track and with the support of Carshalton College and the Prince’s Trust, an Apprenticeship in Motor Vehicle is now in sight.
At 12 years old, Kevin tragically lost his father who suffered a heart attack after the family was burgled. Kevin and his brothers tried desperately to save their father but sadly he died with Kevin by his side.
This had a knock-on effect on his education and Kevin found secondary school hard as he dealt with his grief. He was excluded for two years after fighting and misbehaving in classes. He was allowed to return to school for his GCSEs and went on to join Carshalton College in 2018. Kevin has additional needs, has been diagnosed with ADHD and required support to keep him on track and not get distracted while he was learning.
Kevin progressed onto Level 1 Mechanics alongside retaking his Functional Skills that he had not passed in previous years. Unfortunately, Kevin’s behaviour continued to be disruptive and distracting and he had to leave the course. His tutors referred him to the Prince’s Trust Team programme based at the College.
Joining the Team programme in January 2020, his confidence soared, and he received a glowing reference after completing a two-week work placement at a local mechanics in Croydon.
Kevin is adamant that he wants to be a mechanic, so his Team Leaders supported him to reapply for the Level 1 Motor Vehicle course at Carshalton College. He is doing well on the course, he also has a part time job in a local garage and has a positive future ahead of him.
Kevin’s dream is to own his own garage!
