Mihaela came to the GRoW Programme in May 2022 as she was looking at going back to work after a 5 year break to have her youngest child. With previous retail experience she found seasonal work as a temporary retail assistant and was offered an extension on her contract to work 8 hours a week. Mihaela is now looking to increase her hours with GRoW’s support.
Mihaela said; “I was referred to GRoW from my local jobcentre in Hillingdon where I was on the Restart scheme. As I am quite a shy person my job coach thought I would benefit from GRoW’s approach and understanding in helping mums get back to work and connecting me with other women who are in a similar position to myself.
GRoW have helped me so much by getting me involved in activities and meeting new people. They have offered me so much support from helping me create a CV to giving me practical advice and tips on interviews. They’ve also offered a lot of advice on courses too and I am considering enrolling on an ESOL course with Uxbridge College to improve my language and communication.
I worked in retail in Romania before coming to the UK in 2016 and though I did some cleaning work in private homes when I first came here I haven’t worked since having my son 5 years ago. As I have retail experience I applied for a temporary Christmas job at Primark last November where I was doing 20 hours just for December and have been working there ever since on a part time basis for 8 hours a week. It’s been great and I really enjoy it but I do need to increase my hours to 25 hours a week and so have been actively looking for opportunities. I applied for a job in the Cash Office where I work and was offered an interview but I unfortunately didn’t get the job. Though it was a disappointment I haven’t lost heart as I know other opportunities will come along soon. I also feel I benefited a lot from the experience as I can put what I have learned into practice for future interviews and I think it will help me know now what to expect. There were some questions around my accomplishments and team work that I found quite difficult to answer and so I know I need to prepare my answers for these questions should they come up again in the future.
Being part of the GRoW programme has helped me a lot with my confidence and I really feel they support me with everything. The GRoW app is also really useful and I love the things they do like offering motivational prizes and rewards. I look at the app every day, whenever I have spare time and it is something that really motivates me. There is a lot of useful information about childcare and courses and job vacancies too. Even now I just checked the app and saw that Costco have a part time position available which could be good for me to apply for!