Story 71

I left school at 17 and started training to be a teacher. A couple of years into the course, I concluded that I was not ready to embark on such a serious career and was not in a place where I could be the best teacher I wanted to be. Some challenges in my personal life helped me conclude that I should get some more life experience and then consider returning. I had my son at 21 and ended up becoming a single parent.

I worked as many hours as I could while my family helped me by looking after my son while I worked as childcare, it would have wiped out my entire wage.  I was stuck in a poverty trap, working on minimum wage and having to claim benefits to try and survive.  When my son was finishing primary school, I took a leap and returned to university to continue on my path to teaching.  Due to having already had some funding paid for, I had to self-fund my tuition and take out student loans.  Throughout my course, I was reassured that this was the right move for my family and that the struggle would pay off after my course.

However, currently, I find myself thousands of pounds worse off in student debt, with no steady, regular work and STILL having to claim benefits.  The only thing I currently can find positive to have come out of returning to university was the friends I have made and the knowledge that I have learning differences and disabilities that have made this whole journey so much more challenging than it needed to be.  Maybe more investment and understanding in education, when I was coming through, would have picked this up, and it has made me even more determined that children coming through now should not have to struggle into their mid-30s before getting the support that they need to be their best selves.I feel demoralised and hopeless at the current job situation.

I have applied for EVERY job, part-time, full-time, fixed-term, and permanent, that is available in my area and have been lucky enough to secure a few interviews, but none have been successful.  Many times, the job has already been allocated to someone, but it seems there is a process that needs to be followed legally. I have tried to show my son that working hard is important to get where you want to be in life and that it pays off.

I was back on my college course, completing my HND (which I had him during) within 6 weeks of his birth, and secured a job prior to being finally signed off from college.  A job that I stayed in for 11 years until leaving to return to university to follow my passion and help provide a better life for us.

I feel like this has been a failure not due to not working hard and not giving it my all but the current climate, lack of secure jobs, and constant cuts in funding.