Gemma
Since leaving school, I have always been career driven but never knew exactly what I wanted to do. My hobbies were dancing, acting, singing and creating Artwork. I took Business Studies as one of my GCSE options but never knew what to do with it once I had left school but I knew that I wanted to be my own boss and do something creative.
Gemma
Since leaving school, I have always been career driven but never knew exactly what I wanted to do. My hobbies were dancing, acting, singing and creating Artwork. I took Business Studies as one of my GCSE options but never knew what to do with it once I had left school but I knew that I wanted to be my own boss and do something creative.
After leaving school I went straight into Halesowen College doing a Music Course, I didn’t know what I wanted to achieve with it, I just saw it as a fun thing to do at the time but never really got anything from it since, although I did gain my qualification from it.
I decided to take up another course once I left Halesowen college, and try hairdressing at Dudley College. I enjoyed this and went on to do another year and gained my qualifications. I had driving lessons whilst at college to prepare me for my own independence when I was going to begin work, but after a few lessons I became nervous and had a break for a while. I went into Hairdressing because I knew I wanted to own my own business of styling hair into vintage styles and doing creative things with hair rather than being an everyday hair stylist.
When I had finished my Hairdressing courses, I knew for sure that I wanted to go further into the hair and beauty industry as a self-employed Nails, Hair and Holistic Therapist but had no idea how I was going to find these courses and how I was going to fund them being 20 at the time!
This is when I was introduced to Dudley Talent Match Hub by a connexions worker who had arranged to meet me at Dudley College one day and walk me down to the Hub and introduced to the Mentors that worked there. I had a chat with Jag who was my mentor at the time, about my ideas and what I wanted to do, and he made me feel very sure that Talent Match was going to be something that would seriously prepare me for my future career. He was so right, and I remember the whole conversation on my first day, he told me about courses I could go on, how they would support me with bus fares to get to and from places. Also at this time In my life I was in quite an anxious person because of the changes of college and home life that had changed, I felt like I was losing my groundings in life and didn’t really know what to do with myself.
After many meet-ups and doing research on the internet, I finally had a career plan written out in front of me and since changing mentors 3 times, I have still had the same support that was promised, and I have followed my plan to this day now.
I have now completed A Foundation Counselling Course, and A Complete Nail Technician Course that has been planned and funded by Talent Match! My Mentor now is Steph and she has done similar things with Beauty courses and Nail Creativity, and she advises me on ways to do things and shows me different ways to do different nail enhancements. Steph advised me to do voluntary nail enhancements one day a week for 2 hours at the hub to gain more experience and Portfolio photos. She also chose to take us in her own spare time to a Philosophy Class once a week, which was great and I really feel that this widened my career path also.
Talent Match has brought a positive change into my life as I am now about to become self-employed, I am about to take more courses to widen my experience and availability in the hair and beauty industry. Not only work life, but communication and speaking with other young people who are in a similar situation has helped me understand that I am not on my own with issues that I face. I used to feel very paranoid and insecure about who I was as a person and how I came across to other people, but talking about these anxieties with other young people facing the same problems as me, made me realise that I don’t need to feel like this and it was something that I had to realise over time. I’m finally getting used to being more confident as a person and building my self-esteem. I know this comes with time but also having something to do with myself and having a purpose such as setting up my own business has given me back my self-esteem and confidence.
My future Aspirations are to gain as many beauty and holistic qualifications as I can, and putting them into my business for work and career purposes. I want to eventually be teaching some of the courses that I have learnt, and travel around teaching people how to do them.
I’m very thankful for Talent Match Dudley Hub Service and their workers for putting me on these courses and helping to set me up as I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.
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