Susan Barnes
Having left school with no qualifications, in 2008 Susan was encouraged by her eldest son to enrol on a Skills for Life entry level 3 course in computers at Dudley College, with the promise that he’d enrol too, for support. She soon passed, and went on to complete CLAIT level 1, ECDL levels 1 and 2, ITQ level 2 and Sageline 50 Computerised Accounts level 2. She took on voluntary work as a teaching support assistant helping adults with IT, knowing she needed experience to find a job, and then found paid work as a Community Learning Champion (CLC) in 2010. Since then she has helped 168 adult learners on to courses through her role at Sandwell Adult and Family Learning.
Whilst employed, Susan has continued her learning and gained ECDL level 3, First Aid, CLC level 2, Food Hygiene level 2 and Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector – with the aim of becoming an ICT teacher so that she can “...demonstrate to other people that learning is not all that scary and they too can succeed!”