Even though she is a very busy mother of 3, Maria was eager to develop her own skills so that she would be both prepared to return to the workplace and so that she could help her children more with their school work in an increasingly digital world.
Maria began with brushing up her English and Maths skills, but she was not content with just the basics, as she worked up to studying her level 2 in both subjects and made a start on level 1 ICT. By this time, the whole country was in lockdown, but this didn’t deter Maria one bit, she continued supporting her children with online lessons from school at the same time as working towards her own qualifications via Teams and by working at home whenever she could.
To date Maria has successfully achieved Level 2 qualifications in Maths and English, and Level 2 Functional Skills ICT, and she is well on the way to achieving a Level 2 qualification in Beauty Therapy.
All of this would be a daunting task for any learner returning to education, and not only is Maria a super-mum, she has also achieved all of this in her second language, translating everything for herself into her native Romanian
Maria says she feels really good about her achievements, she feels very confident and very proud of herself that she has been successful. She didn’t want to do distance learning courses because she learns better in-person but she says poor Nat putting up with her struggles She feels much more confident about getting herself a job. She was frustrated before, trying to do her coursework during lockdown when there was no one on hand to ask, no one to explain things; with a different language she sometimes just needed a quick explanation of some of the tasks/criteria. She is embarrassed to say that she didn’t feel she would be able to pass any qualifications but oh my word look at her now, she did it and she is explaining to her children that “I can’t” doesn’t exist, if you think it, and you want it then you can do it!
