Claudette is the perfect example of how education can build confidence and bring much-needed focus to one's life.
Throughout school, Claudette battled with maths. Her negative relationship with numbers followed her into university life and her resulting career in graphic design. A dyslexia diagnosis at university helped her to understand why these difficulties existed but didn’t allow her to overcome the anxieties she experienced when dealing with numbers.
In 2013, whilst out of work, Claudette decided to face her fears head on. She enrolled on a BAES community learning programme at St George’s and completed her Entry 3 qualification in maths alongside a GCSE in English.
Commenting on her situation at the time, Claudette says:
“At a time in my life when I wasn’t working, learning with BAES gave me a positive focus and allowed me to update my skills.”
From this point on, Claudette hasn’t looked back. Despite experiencing setbacks and struggling with some mathematical concepts because of her dyslexia, Claudette has gone on to study up to Level 2 Functional Skills in maths and is currently trying to improve on her Maths GCSE. Her next step is to update her graphic design skills, so she can confidently re-enter the world of work.
Speaking about Claudette, her tutor says: “Claudette is tenacious. She has kept on going and will achieve success. As she says herself keeping going is an undervalued skill and I think that we could all learn a lot from her about picking ourselves up, re-evaluating things and trying again."
