Wendy M – Hybrid Learning 2020

After taking a career break to raise her family, Wendy was originally due to join our Returneeship Course in Huddersfield which was postponed due to the pandemic. Keen to learn and keep herself busy, Wendy completed a number of Distance Learning courses with Release Potential, namely Level 1 Foundation Learning and Employability and levels 1 & 2 Customer Service. Wendy had last worked 19 years ago and found it a very different world. She had a basic CV but had no interview skills. She felt that her age and lack of experience as well as such a long gap in her employment history would make it very difficult to get back into work and felt the Employability course was a good starting place. Wendy laughs about how terrified and how inexperienced she was on the first day of the Employability course. She says “I was an absolute wreck! I didn’t even know how to turn on my laptop and connect to Zoom, I had to get my son to help me!”  She says she felt very uncomfortable and didn’t want to join in or speak out during the tutorial sessions. By the end of the course, not only did Wendy have a good CV and interview skills, but her confidence grew  immeasurably. She felt part of the team and even wrote a piece to say at her final presentation. Wendy credits this to the support she received from the tutor and her support person. She feels that they could see her potential even though she couldn’t but she could see they had faith in her. Wendy enjoyed the course so much, she went onto complete her Levels 1 & 2 Customer Service with the same team and grew in confidence. She contacted her support tutor last week to say she had an interview coming up and  was really nervous as she had never had an interview before. It was arranged for her to go  through a mock interview with her original tutor the evening before and found it invaluable. She attended the interview the next day and found that due to what she had learned on the various courses, she was able to answer all the questions on health & safety and Equality & Diversity with a good level of confidence. Wendy comments “they were firing questions at me and I knew the answers! They kept saying excellent after every answer.” Later that day, she received a phone call and was offered the job. She is currently waiting for her start date. Her new employers told her she was up against six other people and couldn’t believe this was her first ever interview. They told her it was the best prepared interview they had ever seen. Wendy puts her success down to the confidence, skills and knowledge she gained and also to her tutors. She says “I wouldn’t be here without the belief of Graham and Beth. They gave me confidence in myself.  I would encourage anyone who has the chance to go on one of these courses to do so, without hesitation”.

Leave a Comment