Monday, July 14, 2008

Historia is going back to school

Hi there. Today is Monday 14th July, 2008 and in a few hours I will re-enter the classroom to start a Diploma in Business Administration course. I am what they call a mature student - ie I have been out of school for more than 2 years. Actually I have been out of school for 25 years!!! I went to college 3 times in the first 5 years out of school. Over the years I have started many correspondence courses to better myself - and never finished any of them.

I have learned that I get distracted easily when studying at home. I find that I do much better if I am required to go to class to learn and study. And I also did a part time computer technology course for 2 years which (once again) I did not finish. But I had a good excuse for that. I got married and moved to Canada.

I have been in Canada for over 7 years and am struggling to find a good long term job with no college qualifications. My resume lists 7 jobs in 5 years. Then I spent half of 2007 on medical leave for surgery and have struggled to get back into the workforce for the first half of 2008. I did have one job for 2 months, but that did not work out. I was working from home, logging into their company computer, and being distracted by the home environment. I cannot work from home.

Then in late June I went on an interview for a job I really wanted. I passed the first interview and was called back for a second interview. I did well on the second interview but had to admit to not have any job experience for a couple of essentials skills they required. I said I knew how to scan documents - on my flatbed scanner at home but not with huge business machines. And when they asked if I was familiar with MS Access I had to say no. I do know Excel but not Access. I think those answers are why I lost that job.

I was told on Monday last week (7th July) that I was not successful. That was my turning point. I decided that I must get myself a qualification to get any decent jobs. Otherwise I will be doing crappy jobs (such as survey interviewing or call centre CSR) for the rest of my life. I do not want to be doing that.

So I emailed Trios College that same Monday. I got a call from one of their educational counsellors the next day and was invited to go and have an interview with them. I did their entrance exams, (and passed with very good scores) and was enrolled to do the Honours Busines Administration. The timing was perfect as there was a new Business Admin class starting the very next week. I went back on Wednesday with all the financial info required to apply for a student loan. Took all the signed papers back to Trios on Thursday and they said, Thats everything done, see you next Monday. Which is today.

I have been very resistant to applying for a student loan up until now because of all the horror stories I have read about repaying the loans after one graduates. But I just do not have the money to pay for classes - either part time or full time. While I do have a higher goal (there is another certificate I want to do part time, but that needs a good job to pay for it) it will have to wait until I finish this Diploma and get a good job so I can start saving for the certificate course and paying back my student loan.

Trios is a career college that does Business Administration courses taking anywhere from 4 months to one year. George Brown College (which is only a few blocks from my home) takes 3 years to do a diploma on Business Administration. I do not have 3 years to spare.

This blog will be about my 52 weeks as a student from July 14, 2008 until graduation in August 2009. Bon voyage.

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