Rita came to GRoW in 2020 looking for a part-time job that would enable her to fit work around her children and is now working in two different schools taking on a variety of roles in a Breakfast Club, After School Club and as a lunchtime SMSA.
Rita said “As a single parent I really wanted to find a job that would enable me to work while my children were at school so that I wouldn’t need to find childminders to take them to school and pick them up. I found work at a local school supporting children at their Breakfast Club and After School Club but this only amounted to 3 hours a day and I was keen to do more hours.
My GRoW Adviser Khatera really helped me. She did all my paperwork with me and offered me the opportunity to undertake a range of courses. I was quite interested in doing a Dental Nurse Practitioner Apprenticeship with Uxbridge College that GRoW introduced me to though I unfortunately missed the deadline to enrol. I was constantly checking the jobs boards and applying for jobs but I didn’t have the necessary qualifications for many of them and was beginning to get quite frustrated as the need to get a job was becoming urgent for me.
Khatera put me in touch with Sonia to carry out a review of my CV and she was also so helpful. She was really nice and helped me a lot. The experience was really good for me as she did a great job of updating my CV and I was very happy with the result.
I found a job as an SMSA at a local school on the Crinkle Recruitment website that GRoW told me about that specialises in schools jobs and decided to apply. I sent them my new CV and after an interview they offered me the job. It is a part time job at lunchtimes but combined with my Breakfast Club and After School jobs I am now almost working full time hours. My eldest child is at Secondary School and my younger child is at Primary School but one of the benefits of working at the Breakfast and After School Clubs is that he can come with me and I don’t have to arrange childcare for him. I also only work during term-time so I don’t have to work during the school holidays.
Working in a school is the best option for me as a single mum but looking to the future I am thinking of doing a course in Learning Support so I can try to increase my hours eventually and increase my pay.”