After years of successful employment Sam Vanbastan never expected to be struggling to find work.

But after seven years of teaching and 16 years of self-employment Sam found herself out of work and in a two-year search for a new job.

After completing dozens of applications but only rarely reaching the interview stage, she had lost her self-esteem and began to believe she simply did not have what it took to re-join the job market.

The 51-year-old was at a particularly low ebb when she met the Smart Works Scotland team after approaching their stall at a job fair in March 2023.

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"I rarely got past the application stage and when I did, I never did well at the interview," she said.

"This was having a significant impact on my self-confidence, and I thought I was never going to get a job.

"When I met with Smart Works at the job fair, they took my details and called me the next day."

Smart Works Scotland is a charity that provides free, high-quality interview clothing and coaching to unemployed women and is celebrating its one-year anniversary of opening in Glasgow.

Sam added: "I was invited to come into their centre for a tailored interview coaching session to look through my CV, talk through my interview technique and help address any concerns that I had.

"They also helped me to create an outfit that would be interview-appropriate and that would make me feel comfortable and confident, giving me the clothes to take away free of charge.

"I was treated with respect and kindness."

Within just a week of meeting with the Smart Works team, Sam secured a job working in the charity sector.

She added: "I left that meeting with a new sense purpose and self-worth.

"I left with the skills to speak confidently during an interview, successfully enough to land a job."

Rhiannon Wilson also received the confidence boost she needed to gain employment after meeting with the Smart Works team.

Starting out in a male-dominated industry she felt she wasn't intelligent enough to take on a new role.

But this changed after coaching from Smart Works.

The 29-year-old had just completed a software development course with digital skills academy, CodeClan, when she found out about Smart Works.

Before that, she had felt a bit lost and didn’t know where to begin with her job search as she was entering a completely new industry. "I felt overwhelmed because the technology industry and my course was very male dominated," Rhiannon, from Stirling, said.

"I never felt like I was smart enough or intelligent enough. There was a culture of always having to learn more, and to be better than everyone else.

"Smart Works gave me the confidence to realise that I can do this, and that there’s plenty of other women out there who are doing it, and that I was going to be fine."

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Rhiannon said she was immediately put at ease during her coaching session, with her coach helping her to feel more confident in the answers she was giving.

She reminded her to relax, that she is there to find out about the role and the company just as much as they wanted to find out if she was the right candidate for them.

Rhiannon added: "My coach was so friendly and at the time I felt quite isolated, so it was nice to have someone to speak to about my situation."

During her dressing appointment, Rhiannon felt a real confidence boost and a sense of calm.

She said: "We talked through my style preferences, how I wanted to feel in my interview, whether I wanted to feel more formal or casual and we agreed on an outfit that was quite versatile so it was easy to mix and match as I had a few interviews at the time so I could juggle between a few different looks.

"After my appointment with Smart Works, I secured a role as a junior software developer for a company in Glasgow.

"With my increased confidence and self-esteem, and the support of Smart Works behind me, I now feel like a different person."