New career is good deal

His days pounding the streets of Cardiff now seem a distant memory as he sits in front of the latest editing equipment at corporate communications company, Quadrant.

Since joining the company in October 2000 as a New Deal trainee, Mr Mustafa impressed managers with his ability to learn quickly and his enthusiasm to better himself.

Starting as an administrative assistant, Mr Mustafa has progressed quickly through the ranks and has recently been promoted to edit assistant, working on a television show for ITV's new channel Capital TV.

He said: "My life has changed for the better since starting at Quadrant. "I've been given opportunities I only dreamt about.

"The great thing is that the company recognised my potential and did something positive about it."

Without any qualifications, Mr Mustafa is an example of how talent can still triumph in today's qualification-led world.

It wasn't long after starting at Quadrant that he impressed his colleagues with his intuitive graphic design skills.

And when a vacancy in the IT department arose, Mr Mustafa was switched from administration tasks to assisting Quadrant's IT manager.

At the end of 2002 he was given his big break and promoted to edit assistant within Quadrant's rapidly expanding broadcast division.

Mr Mustafa received training in non-linear editing and Adobe after effects, which enabled him to insert graphics and title sequences into video, DVD and webstreaming productions.

Colin Stevens, deputy chief executive of Quad-rant, said: "Rahim has a great feel for broadcast.

"Not only does he understand what makes a good picture but he can package the whole thing together to make a quality production.

"He definitely has the talent to go a long way within this industry and he can be assured that we will give him the best in-house training to do this."