Much as was the story for thousands of students this year, following her June 2020 graduation from the National University of Ireland Galway, Simone K found herself unemployed and facing an ever increasingly saturated job market. Despite holding a 2:1-degree classification in Economics and Psychology, Simone was unable to acquire employment and soon found herself ‘waking up late’ and grappling with the loss of structure that education had previously provided.

The combination of a global pandemic and a substantial lifestyle shift, from a student to an unemployed graduate, had Simone stumped and searching for a ‘reason to get up and feel busy again’. Crucially, happening upon Release Potential, through the guidance of a career’s advisor, did just that. For Simone, the course provided a ‘reason to get started with the day’, she emphasises ‘it made me feel like I was accomplishing something’. She expresses she was first drawn to the care course as she wanted to expand her knowledge of mental health, learn further about differentiating needs and attain the ability to broach individualised requirements with the correct understanding. Simone highlights ‘I feel like these days mental health is a bit of a taboo subject’ and, ultimately, ‘the course broke down that barrier for me’.

For many, the shift to remote learning initially seemed a daunting endeavour however Simone contends that, in fact, ‘the zoom aspect of the course eased my nerves’. At first, the navigation of a diverse set of personalities overwhelmed Simone, but she now maintains that diversity is ‘one of the things the course has taught me the most about’. Release Potential, and its utilisation of Zoom, preserved the ability to work closely in a ‘diverse group’ whilst providing a ‘personalised focus’ on each learner.

Perhaps most pivotal to Simone’s experience with Release Potential was her attainment of a job as a Support Worker for Exemplar Healthcare, a service providing care and rehabilitation for adults with a diverse set of needs. She states, ‘the course made me feel really prepared for the interview I had’. As is normal, Simone describes feeling nervous prior to the interview but highlights that there was ‘so much information from the course that I used…there were lots of buzz words I was able to utilise that previously I had no knowledge of’. Pivotally, she goes on to assert that ‘the information I used from the course got me the job’. The acquirement of this job will crucially enable Simone to further explore her career options in a way which she describes as ‘previously inaccessible’ due to a lack of apparent opportunities which she maintains were then provided by Release Potential. With the prospect of proceeding to study a MSc in Psychology Simone hopes the job will give her an opportunity to ‘see a wide range of careers’ and ‘enable me to understand what area of psychology I want to go into’.

Ultimately, Simone emphasises she is ‘thankful’ to Release Potential for ‘giving’ her the ‘chance she needed’ in a year stricken with chances seemingly far and few.