Expelled at eight. Homeless at 15. But now I've got my mojo back with the chance to work

Devonte’s world unravelled after his brother was murdered and his mother died of cancer. Here he tells David Cohen how he beat the odds and turned his life around

- David Cohen

FEW people gave Devonte a chance of making a success of his life. By the time the tearaway sat his GCSE exams at Catford library, he had been permanently excluded three times and had achieved the dubious distinction of being kicked out of a pupil referral unit — a unit that specializes in re-socializing kicked-out children. Even for them, Devonte was too disruptive.

Today, the grin on the 19-year-old’s face was infectious as he proudly showed us around his new workplace — the O2 Arena — where he is employed by the hospitality company Compass. “My story shows that however bad your past, with the right help, you can turn your life around,” he said, referring to the training course he completed with Springboard, the charity that upskilled him and found him a job — and the first partner announced as part of our Skill Up Step Up campaign.

The south Londoner looked poised beyond his years, but few teenagers have had to fight as hard as Devonte. Brought up by a single mother, Devonte was just six when one of his older brothers was stabbed and killed at a party in a row over a mobile phone. “We were very close,” he said. “He would pick me up from school and we would bake apple crumble together. He was 15 when he died and after that, I didn’t know how to deal with my sadness. I wasn’t aware I was angry but I would easily lose my temper and I started getting into fights at school.”

At eight, Devonte’s primary school expelled him to Summerhouse, a pupil referral unit for primary school children in Southwark. By the time he started secondary school, he was already way behind his peers and feeling like he was being bypassed.