Back to school success for Jane

As the new term started, there was an extra school bag waiting by the front door in Jane Stewart’s home. Here, the mum-of-two explains why and recalls how our Back to Work course helped her land her perfect part-time role.

“With my youngest starting school last year and a bit more time on my hands, I started to think about getting back to work. I wanted to get prepared and maybe add a few courses to my CV – though after 10 years at home, I couldn’t even find my CV!

I needed to get into the right mindset, so a friend recommended Successful Mums. Their Back to Work course was perfect for me. Just finding out where to look for flexible work was great but it also got me to really think about my strengths and what I wanted to do.

The idea of a school office job had been at the back of my mind for a while. My background is in HR and I’ve always liked helping people and being part of a team. But school jobs don’t come up that often and, whenever they did, I’d convince myself that there’d be hordes of people with exactly the right experience and I wouldn’t stand a chance.

In fact, there’s a lot of crossover with HR and my Back to Work coach, Georgina, gave me the confidence to see that. I’d been used to managing employees’ absence, attendance and performance, for example, and in a school you’re essentially doing the same thing for pupils.

Georgina had some great advice. She suggested I get a first aid course on my CV, as it’s something all schools look for. So I did that and also took a couple of online IT courses to update my skills. I already had a security check from volunteering at my daughter’s school, so made sure that was on my CV, too. It was all about ticking the right boxes. I was fully prepared to wait a while for the right job with the right hours to come along but it happened almost straight away. I decided to apply and thought I’d be really happy if I managed to get an interview because that would mean I was on the right track.

I had no expectations… but I got the job! I feel really lucky and am now working two days a week, term-time only, which is perfect for me and my family. I don’t get a chance to look at the clock all day but I’m really enjoying the job and I still get to be there for my kids.

This feels like the start of the next stage for me. Successful Mums helped me get work ready and feel confident so that when the opportunity came along, I could go for it. I’m very grateful for that!”

Successful Mums can help you get work ready, too. Book your place on one of our fully funded Back to Work courses today.