Guernsey Employment Trust sees demand rise by 25%

An employment trust, which helps people with additional needs into work, says it has seen demand jump by 25% year on year.

Nikki Ioannou-Droushiotis, chief executive of Guernsey Employment Trust, said it had already seen the same number of referrals it had in 2025 by August.

"We are on a trajectory to receive 300 [referrals] by the end of this year," she said adding it was hard to pinpoint what was behind the sharp rise in demand.

The Committee for Employment and Social Security, which provides funding for the trust, has been approached for comment.

Ellie Carey found work as front of house at Les Cotils through the trust and said: "I feel more confident.

"It's been great all along. It's very supportive and caring as well."

Erin Cutter, managing director of Les Cotils, said: "She works with us three days a week, three mornings and she brings, the word I have to use to describe her is joy.

"She is always smiling, she has fitted in really well here, the staff and our customers love her and she's just brilliant."

Cutter said the trust's programme echoed the ethos of Les Cotils.

"We've been working with them for a number of years and we give work experience to people and then hopefully from that they then find other employment," she said.

"If we have roles, then obviously their natural progression would be to come and work with us at Les Cotils.

"Ellie was a slightly different situation, we created the role for Ellie because we saw the value in her working with us and she's been with us for over a year now and it is brilliant and she's fitted in and it's been completely seamless."

James Priaulx carried out work experience through the trust and has found work as a cleaner with the commercial cleaning and facilities management company Q3.

He said it was "very nice" to work for them and "I feel a lot more healthier and stronger".

Priaulx joked: "I've got this exercise machine [the vacuum cleaner] with me, its very good. Getting my steps in."

Ioannou-Droushiotis said: "Our numbers are increasing and over the last few years the main reason that people have come to us is due to mental health closely followed by individuals with autism."

She said: "We work with anyone from the age of 16 and there's no upper age limit but more people are coming to us under the age of 25.

"I think generally there's a lot more awareness now than there was 10-11 years ago around disability but neurodiversity in particular is something that's talked about a lot more often."

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