Learner story — Barbara, a very determined learner!
A fantastic story about one of our learners touched our hearts this month. Skills Bootcamps Success Coach, Lynda Roweth, is sharing it with you.
“Barbara let me know before she started her Skills Bootcamp in Microsoft IT Engineer Dynamics 365 that she was 34 weeks pregnant.
The Bootcamp started on 14th March and Barbara was determined to push on through as she has said more than once to me that 'learning is more of a hobby than a chore for me.' She absolutely did not want to miss the start of her Bootcamp. There was concern the baby might be coming early…
Her waters broke on 12th March and she was told she could go home and would need to come back if she went into premature labour.
As Barbara couldn't attend the group session because she was 'busy' 😊, we did the first Success Coach meeting after she was sent home on 14th March. On 15th March, during her Breaking Into the Industry session, she was also having contractions.
And then... Barbara sent me a photo of the baby on 16th March. 'I was just about to write you when it suddenly went super-fast!'
'She's out. I'm going to have to stay a bit because she's premature, but I'll be able to join that session tomorrow” 😮 Barbara had given birth to little Nadja, a beautiful baby girl.
Barbara's first technical session was on 17th!
After checking with Safeguarding and my manager at Firebrand, Barbara attended her first technical day from the hospital! She was under strict instructions to take it slow, and the trainer was asked not to ask anything of her, but I had permission to tell them, 'Yes, you can tell him! I got a laptop here, just headset is missing at the moment...”
Such dedication; she really wanted so hard to be here… I was tearing up that day and worried for her. She was not at all worried and so determined and she wanted to be there: 'It's all good. I'm in the meeting and listening while just holding her' and 'I really love learning, so no worries!” — which made me tear up again.
For the first days of the Bootcamp, Nadja was quite poorly with jaundice and the two of them spent 15 days in hospital. Barbara said, 'We're getting discharged finally — was waiting so hard! So tomorrow I get to work on a proper computer with proper internet.” Nadja was tiny, only 2kg…
Barbara has achieved her first two out of three certificates so far and is giving herself a slight breathing space, after which she will take her third qualification. She’s very grateful for how supportive her partner Marcel has been, in addition to baby duties — bringing her laptop to hospital and being supportive of her choice to keep studying.
I've seen an awful lot of determination to succeed in my 18 months as Skills Bootcamps Success Coach, but Barbara is up there, top of my list.
'Sometimes it's hard to get anything done in the lab because I got no one to watch her during those days since my partner works full-time, so I often end up nursing her while sitting at the PC and can't use my hands to do the lab and then I have to be faster than others to not get left behind.” Despite all this, Barbara is a fast achiever in her group!”
What an amazing story – thank you for sharing!