Youngsters get award winning career advice

8:15am Friday 12th January 2007

A Croydon journalist turned recruitment entrepreneur is now helping youngsters fulfil their dreams.

Adeline Iziren, 39, has been a journalist for 15 years and one of her proudest professional achievements was interviewing Nelson Mandela.

She has been helping young people aged 13 and over and recently launched a recruitment firm in East Croydon.

For the last five years she has produced a youth magazine called Nang!, which features careers advice, fashion, reviews, music and celebrity interviews.

Adeline's efforts helped her team win a Phillip Lawrence Award, named in memory of the headteacher stabbed to death when he intervened in a fight between two youths outside his west London school in 1995.

In December the Nang! team picked up a trophy and a £1,000 cheque, which was presented to them by Sir Trevor McDonald and the Home Secretary, John Reid.

Adeline said: "The team was so excited about winning an award, especially as hundreds of young people submitted entries."

But Adeline's talents do not stop in the media field. She has also built up her own recruitment business - SmartGrads - which aims to match employers and graduates to help build successful careers.

Its office is based in Alexandra Road, East Croydon, and is gradually building a good reputation in the recruitment world since its launch last April.

Adeline added: "The business is slowly growing and my goal now is to improve the youngsters' skills and eventually find them jobs through SmartGrads."

Nang!, which is slang for cool, is charity and advertising funded and can be found at Croydon's central library.

Adeline has won awards in the past for her work, including the Work Foundation's Internet Journalist Award, for careers and business features she has published.

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