Gaudia recalls an eventful past year with a drive to look forward to an improved future. Just over a year ago, Gaudia moved from Portugal, where she had previously worked as an admin assistant, and found a first job working in a retail environment in the capital city of London. Although, not long after starting this job Gaudia had to hand in her notice as she was relocated to Bradford. Over the next six months Gaudia was without a job in Bradford and used this time to reflect on what she wanted to focus on. When her Universal Credit work coach passed on information related to courses that were available to her, Gaudia convinced herself to enrol on a course that would develop skills she already had. Gaudia felt she was drawn to the diploma in IT user skills offered by Release Potential. By starting this course Gaudia was hopeful she would be able to work on skills she had developed in her previous roles in Portugal as well as discovering new interests.

Gaudia specifically wanted to improve her knowledge of spreadsheet software and stated “although this part of the course was rather brief” she has “learnt a lot and continues to practice at home to build my confidence in using them [spreadsheets]”. The course also covered some exciting topics that were completely new to Gaudia too. In fact Gaudia particularly enjoyed learning about creating web pages and building a virtual escape room.

Understandably, as English is not Gaudia`s mother tongue and Gaudia had only been living in England for approximately a year, she felt concerned that her language and communication skills may hold her back. This barrier was soon overcome thanks to Natasha, the tutor on the course, who gave some valuable advice on searching for other courses designed to work on her language skills that Gaudia could take into consideration at a later date. In general Gaudia is keen to tell me that the tutor and tutor support were very patient and helpful especially in recognising any language difficulties Gaudia faced whilst carrying out the work on the course.

Gaudia is proud to tell me that she is now working for Marks and Spencer in their e-commerce department, and looking to the future Gaudia would like to improve on her job position and also start giving back to the community by helping others who find themselves in dire situations.

Gaudia would recommend others to take the course as she did and wants people to know that “[the course] is helpful, useful and it has helped motivate me to do more”.