20-year-old swaps lifeguarding for bin collection as coronavirus shakes up the job market

  • Wales

All over Wales the job market has been shaken up with the UK and Welsh Governments' measures to control the spread of the coronavirus.

When all pubs, clubs, non-essential shops and leisure centres were closed, lifeguard Zoe Coleman was out of a job.

Since then, her employer, Pembrokeshire County Council, has redeployed her to work as a recycling collector.

Zoe is one of 13 staff at Pembrokeshire's council-run leisure centres to be redeployed into helping to maintain critical services.

The newly-trained staff will be working with the existing teams to collect household waste and recycling from the kerbside.

Zoe has taken the new role in her stride - even finding time to become a star on the video sharing platform, Tik Tok.

She shared a video of her trying on her new uniform, saying she was the only woman out of the 164 bin collectors in Pembrokeshire.

The video was a bit hit on the platform, receiving over 32,000 'likes'.

Other Tik Tok videos Zoe has published have included one showing her transforming from wearing her lifeguard's uniform, into her bin collecting clothing.

Zoe also documented her first day in her new job last week. She wrote that she had needed a two hour sleep after the shift because her legs were so tired.

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Pembrokeshire Council says other staff have moved into domiciliary care work, while some have re-trained as registrars and call handlers for the Council’s provider services.

Cllr David Simpson wrote a letter to council staff saying it was vital that the Council’s core services should be maintained as far as possible.

A number of other Pembrokeshire council employees have been identified as suitable to be redeployed to work at Withybush Airport to ensure that it remains open.

Education staff are working on child care settings and providing a varied programme for children of key workers.