A year at The Grove Hotel started long before Jack ever walked through its kitchen doors
Jack is tall and unfailingly polite — the kind of person who arrives on time and quietly goes about their business. He’s autistic and has learning disabilities, and anyone who has worked alongside him will tell you the same thing: he tries hard, and he cares about doing things properly.
That much was obvious during Jack’s five years at Langdon College, where he completed a Level 1 Employability Skills Course between 2018 and 2023. Alongside his studies, he took on a string of voluntary roles — a weekly shift at Edgware bus garage, time in a British Heart Foundation charity shop, and a placement at The Grove Hotel. In every one of them, Jack was well liked and worked hard. But not one of them turned into a paid job.
When Jack left college, the search for real work began — and it was harder than anyone expected. His mum, Michelle, knocked on door after door on his behalf, chasing every lead she could find. Nothing came of it. Rejection after rejection wore Jack down, and the confidence he’d built up over years of volunteering slowly began to slip away.
