Employability Bursary: Gino Yunnissi
Gino Yunnissi is a second year FE-HE Pathway to Arts student studying Anthropology, German, and Comparative Literature. During the summer of 2021, Gino was awarded an Employability Bursary and used the fund towards a trainee counselling programme.
Gino has kindly shared his reflections with the Careers Centre:
Counselling is an enriching and challenging task, in all social and intellectual levels. It demands you introspect and become more self-aware while growing emotionally. Empathy, attentive listening, and a caring acceptance are some of the key modalities to learn and adopt during one’s counselling journey.
At TCA (Tayside Council on Alcohol) Dundee, after more than a year of training, I began last summer to support individuals who struggle with substance misuse, popularly referred to as ‘addiction’. These months were – from an emotional, social, and learning point of view – extremely enriching and productive, yet often scary. Yes, it can sometimes be frightening, especially on the first encounters with a person, to realise that one is now dealing with a real human life, with urgent issues and dynamics. Nevertheless, the support from my colleagues at TCA, and the knowledge that I acquired during training, helped me face these first encounters with confidence and calmness.
Moreover, counselling takes a significant amount of time. It requires reading, intellectual exploration, and profound reflection, so it was of equally great support to receive an Employability Bursary from the Careers Centre. I like to think that it conveyed that such an endeavour not only benefits me but also the larger societal sphere. Using the fund to support myself financially provided me an extra amount of time, previously devoted to paid work, that could instead be used to put effort and a more profound focus onto my counselling volunteering program and related weekly responsibilities.
As to the future, counselling allows me to acquire and practise diverse social, human, and emotional tools that can be transferred and reapplied in entirely different contexts and vocational paths. I feel that I have gained an important set of skills that will, hopefully, open several professional doors and grant me diverse opportunities in my future career.
We are delighted to hear that Gino has had such a positive experience in this role, and that the Employability Bursary has helped him make the most out of it. To find out more, including information on how to apply and eligibility, please visit our Employability Bursary page.