For me, school was alright. I mostly hung out with my friends there, but I didn’t really like studying. I have a big family and the house was always busy, and had to mind my brothers and sisters a lot
I did my Leaving Cert Applied, and after that I didn’t know what to do with myself. That’s when I started hanging out in the local youth centre and began volunteering. I realised I really liked working with younger groups.
The youth worker there told me about one of the Further Education colleges and she brought me to meet the person in charge there. They told me about the Childcare course, and what I needed to do to apply. My youth worker helped me with with my application and gave me a reference. They were great to keep me motivated, and practiced interview questions with me so I was less nervous when going for it.
I really enjoyed the course! I found the assignments really hard and I didn’t have a laptop, but I used to go to the youth club to use theirs. They encouraged me and supported me when things got hard. When I was studying my aunt & her children moved in with us, they had no where else to go. There was no where at home I could get quiet to study so I asked the youth centre if I could study there. There were times when I got depressed and felt like dropping out many times but I didn’t. I stuck with it and I was delighted with myself when I passed the exams.
I did my work experience locally and they told me when I passed the course they would take me on. I passed my Level 5 with a merit, I was delighted and now I’m working with young people every day. I love my job, I love working with small children, and my aim is to go back to more education at some stage and do my Level 6. I am definitely in the right career for me and I love going to work every day.