Reshma came to the UK with her family from India in late 2021 and with a long gap in her employment was concerned about how she would rebuild her career. She joined Belina GRoW and has been fully engaged with activities. She has rebuilt her confidence and is now following her dreams.
Reshma said “I had tried to get back to work in India when my son started full time school but when the pandemic hit I had to abandon my hopes. My family and I then moved to the UK and before I knew it I had been out of work since 2012. As I had been a teacher in India I was looking for jobs that would suit my qualifications but after applying for some vacancies I was finding the interviews really difficult and just wasn’t getting anywhere. I was concerned about how long I had been out of work for and was feeling like I was unemployable. I needed a new start and I needed a boost and fortunately GRoW came along just at the right time.
The GRoW Team were promoting their work at my son’s school about helping mums get back to work and I was immediately interested. By this time I was desperate to start work again now that my son was in Year 3. I was interested in part-time or full-time work, preferably in a school but I was open to working in other sectors too.
I contacted GRoW and was introduced to Sonia so that we could do a review of my CV and so she could help me practice my interview techniques. The CV Sonia did with me was absolutely amazing, it was such an improvement on the CV I had previously and it really helped me feel more confident. At the one to one interview workshop I had so many questions to ask Sonia. I just didn’t know how best to represent myself but she was fantastic, answering all my questions and the by the end of the interview I felt so much better. I now feel really prepared if I get offered an interview and so much more confident.
Tosin was assigned to me as my personal Adviser and she discussed my options with me and encouraged me to attended all the different the GRoW events such as the Job Searching Workshops and the Coffee Mornings and each and every one of them was wonderfully useful. I have applied for more jobs since my CV was updated, one of them is for a job at Brunel University as an Admissions Officer and they asked me to write 3600 words as part of the application. I wasn’t sure how to do it but Sonia and Tosin helped me, reviewing what I had written and correcting it in places so that it read much better. They also helped tailor a cover letter to go with the application and they have done the same with three other jobs I have applied for in retail at Matalan, WHSmith and Primark. Because of the CV Workshop I attended I learned how to tailor my CV to the job I am applying for so I did this myself when I applied for the retail jobs.
I am really keen to undertake more learning and Tosin and Kaneez are currently looking for a suitable Teaching Assistant course for me to attend at college. I am also going to be doing an Information, Advice and Guidance Course that GRoW offered me and I have found some free courses in basic maths and IT that I want to do too.
I would recommend anyone to go on the GRoW Programme as it has changed my world. After attending GRoW I feel I am now following my dreams.