As a single mother with two young children, I was really concerned about being “stuck” with few or no employment prospects and no way of improving my situation.
I really wanted to go to university, but a badly timed relationship and resultant pregnancy meant I just couldn’t.
I had good GCSE results, and managed to complete two A-levels before my circumstances changed, but uni was out of the question.
I looked at evening classes at my local college, but even this turned out to be more difficult than I had thought. No real problem with the studying part of it, but having to set aside three hours plus travelling time to go down to the college one evening a week would have been a nightmare. The cost of childcare alone put me off. I’m not one of these “lucky” people who have their mum or sister living just round the corner to help out with babysitting…
I wanted to study something worthwhile that would give me a qualification I could use to get a job once the children started going to school. I looked around on the Internet and found several distance learning providers who had several courses that I was interested in. I spoke to quite a few of them, and decided to use Cambridge Open College.
Two reasons prompted me to use Cambridge. In the first place, the person I spoke to on the phone talked through possible career options with me. I was just thinking about childcare qualifications initially, but the lady I spoke to asked some really interesting questions that made me think about teaching. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I decided to do a teaching course with them. The other reason I chose them was that they offered sensible instalments, which was very important to me. I’m now halfway through the QCF qualification course “Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools”. I love it.
I’m really looking forward to doing my placement with the local primary school too. Once I’m qualified, I’m hoping to get a job with that school, which is where my daughter will go. That’ll be really convenient.
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