Syeda came to GRoW in July 2021 after being referred by her local job centre. Syeda had been out of work for 3 years after being made redundant from her Post Office Branch Manager job and was looking to return to the workplace in a different role. She has now set her sights on a teaching career and is currently studying for a Level 3 Teaching Assistant qualification.
Syeda said; “When I was made redundant my youngest son was only 1 and so I took some time out to spend with my family, which is something I hadn’t been able to do with my older child. After a while though I felt it was time to get back to work but I didn’t want a job with the same level of responsibility as I had previously; my children now demand a lot of my time and energy and so I felt a change of career was necessary for the wellbeing of my family.
When I went to GRoW I felt really positive and hopeful as the job centre had explained how they have supported many women into work over the years and it was very clear when I first joined that the team place high importance on a good life/work balance. I explained that I really wanted to find a job that would allow me to work from home, a customer service role or alternatively a job in a school where I would be able to work term time only and they understood this straight away.
I attended some of the GRoW Coffee Mornings which introduced me to the activities GRoW had to offer and I attended the CV Workshop with Sonia and the Job Search Workshops which were really helpful. The Thursday Jobs Bulletin has also been really useful as it has shown me a good range of local jobs I can apply for and what what skills and experience employers are looking for.
My GRoW Adviser Saeema is so kind and understanding and has been a source of knowledge over the past year. She has been my Adviser since day one and is absolutely fantastic. It was Saeema who told me about a Level 3 Teaching Assistant qualification I could do which I found really appealing as enhancing my qualifications is something that is very important to me. I have a honours masters from Bangladesh’s City and National University and since coming to this country I have been awarded a Graduate Certificate in World History. I really wanted to do more studying and the Teaching Assistant Course sounded really interesting. What’s more, it is absolutely free and accessible online. I would never have known about it if were not for GRoW and I just thought I had nothing to lose, why not give it a go?
I have now started the course and submitted my first assessment. I am really excited about it and it feels great to be back doing something good for my career and for myself after 15 years. I am so looking forward to the change it will bring to my life and to my family. My next step now is to work towards getting a job as a Teaching Assistant in a school but my goal is to become an actual teacher. I don’t want to stand still, I want to continue to grow and keep moving further towards achieving my goal.
Being with GRoW over the past year I have really got to understand the ethos of how they work as a team and what their values are. They juggle their work with their children and work really hard and put in so much effort into the people they support. I have so much admiration for what they do and am really thankful to have had the opportunity to be part of their programme.”