As a woman who juggles career, home and being a mum, finding time to squeeze in your personal growth seems impossible. Churchill Education Co-Founder and Director, Tricia Velthuizen shares how she managed to achieve a Graduate Diploma in Strategic Leadership through Recognition of Prior Learning, while running a business, raising kids, looking after ageing parents and all the things! How? She got help and support from a team who knows the process and could see her value, even when she couldn’t.
Transcript
Oh the joys of going uphill first thing in the morning.
So I’ve got four kids.
One moved out. Move to Tasmania for a job. Amazing.
Another one in grade 12, Ellie.
Gosh she’s doing well.
And then I’ve got twins, Will and Amelia.
14 years old.
And for a big chunk of my working life,
I’ve been juggling being a mum and trying to build a career.
And I’m not alone in it.
Many people have done it.
At times I’ve thought I need to go and study.
I need to keep learning but I just I couldn’t find the space around the edges, you know.
Four kids, business to run, a family to be a part of.
The concept of trying to look after yourself in the mix.
And then add something new to learn.
Something formal so you can study.
Just this was too much.
So instead, magic view out here, instead I just started working on learning myself.
Lots of books.
Listening to people.
YouTube.
Ted X.
Trying things.
Applying the ideas that I was being shared and then seeing how they worked, and adapting them.
Making them mine.
And over time, well, I was learning things where I could tell that my knowledge was going.
Here we go car coming up the goat track.
So, you know one day someone said to me, one of team, an HR manager in fact, I think you should look at the Graduate Diploma of Strategic Leadership.
Now, I’ve got to be honest.
It was a bit throwing.
I was running Churchill, was the CEO.
At a time we had about a hundred staff, some big turnover in terms of business volume and students.
But I was still thinking to myself, “Oh I last did a graduate diploma at Uni for law. Took me 12 months of full-time study.”
And even though
I was a CEO at Churchill Education who has always always specialised in Recognition of
Prior Learning, I was doubtful.
But my team got behind me.
And I started pulling all the evidence and workplace examples together, and then getting the experts to do the mapping. You see I think they knew.
For me it was still around the edges.
I still probably didn’t have the headspace to be able to tackle it.
I need someone else to work with me so they took it on.
And when I got the results and looked at it.
I’m gonna be honest.
I didn’t realize how much I’d done, how I’d learned, how far I’d come.
From starting out managing no one, all those years before, to running a company.
So I guess If you’re a woman who has been like me.
Building your career, raising your kids, trying to keep home in some modicum of sanity.
Tackling parents as we hell get older, trying to have friendships and you think, “God I can’t squeeze any study.”, not around the edges just don’t have it.
Don’t ever forget that Recognition of Prior Learning is going to take on all the things that you’re learning now that you had been learning the whole way through.
And that can be worthy recognition of all that experience and commitment that you’ve made.
Oh I’m just gonna show you this view it’s amazing.
Just pretty bloody magic.
Keeps my energy picked up.
So if you want a hand, If you want people to be on your team to look at what you’ve done, figure where it is.
Take your informal education, your School of Hard Knocks graduation, and turn it into a qualification, Churchill’s here to help you.
And trust me when I say you’re never too old.
It’s always a good time to have someone and you work together, take care of you.
I’ll talk to you soon. It’s Tricia Velthuizen, Churchill Education.
Got to get to the top of the goat track.
What about another nine minutes to go?
Talk to you soon.
Tricia Velthuizen
Co-Founder & Director
Churchill Education
