ABE Level 4 graduate, Hidy, is a single mum working full-time to support her children, siblings and a parent: this in itself makes finding the time to achieve a qualification challenging and impressive. On top of that, she has had to deal with a double bereavement, overcome the resulting depression as well as the set back of failing her exams on first attempt (which coincided with losing her father) . She says, “I decided to try again with the encouragement of people who loved me and wanted to see me grow. I went to the lowest and hardest time of my life hitting depression and I was able to rise to the occasion stayed my course and achieved results.” At the time of writing she planned to continue her studies and become a professionally qualified human resources practitioner.
Here's her story:
Prior to ABE, Hidy completed secondary school education and has been working in the supermarket industry for the past 24 years, first as a cashier then cashier supervisor and she is now an HR Assistant. Throughout her working life Hidy has always taken the time to motivate and encourage her colleagues and associates to reach their full potential. Her own goal was to work in the human resource department. She achieved this in 2011 because her passion was noticed by management and she started her ABE courses in HRM in 2013 but sadly did not pass her assessments. Her father passed away at the same time as she was taking her exams.
She was encouraged by her partner and work colleagues to redo the course. She is now applying her studies to her role in the department she strived so hard to break into and ABE is helping her grow in professional competence. She is now responsible for recruitment and assists in organising many of the company's events, such as health fairs, the recognition programme, job fairs and orientation.
Hidy has overcome exceptional challenges to achieve her qualification, she told us, “Whilst doing my Level 4 Diploma my father passed away and was buried the same day as my exams this was a tough time for me.
In 2017 my brother was tragically killed, this broke me down to the lowest that I have been in my life I could not study or focus on anything, I had hit rock bottom. I was able to look for a silver lining, reschedule and pledged my last exam to him. I am thankful that through it all I was able to complete my course and know that my family is proud of my accomplishments.”
Hidy has demonstrated an exceptional level of personal resilience that few people could match and is inspirational on so many levels. She demonstrates that you should never give up. You can fail your exams but, if you have the will and keep trying, you’ll get there. She also found a way to channel her grief to help her learning and, by demonstrating her passion for HR, she was able to successfully change her career.