I was interviewed by ABC Riverina Radio this morning (the image is of me – slightly nervously – awaiting the interview to start!). 

Here is the link to the Interview – I come on at the 2h47m42s mark.

It was a feature on how after I was made redundant from my long term public sector career in 2018, I decided to refresh my qualifications and enrol with TAFE NSW in a Certificate IV of Business Administration at the ripe old age of 44.  

The main factor that lead me to going back to TAFE was primarily wanting to show I was industry current with my skills so I could be competitive in the job-seeking game as I had NO IDEA exactly which sort of role I would end up in. 

This decision to jump into a course again was not taken lightly, and while I am a lifelong learner, going back to take on learning in a tertiary setting was slightly daunting (I mean, aren’t students supposed to be in their teens and early 20’s!?). But after finding a TAFE NSW course offering that suited me I bit the bullet and enrolled, and haven’t looked back! 
 
The course lead to a short term contract in an administrative role, and when that ended I decided to launch my own business – because I could see a need for providing administrative consulting and social media assistance to small businesses in the Riverina who were not big enough to warrant full-time administrative employees. 

I then completed the Seed Virtual Assistants start up program which was the EXACT THING I needed to connect the dots between my previous career, my recent Cert IV, and then working for myself. 

I can say hand on heart I have not regretted for one second taking the leap of faith to start working for myself in my business. I absolutely LOVE what I do – working with a variety of small business owners helping them with their administration or social media to make it easier for them to concentrate on their core business! 

So this post is just to say to anyone who needs to hear it – take that FIRST STEP in looking to get some updated, refreshed or new skills training or learning – there are so many options available for this to help you on your way to a new career path!  You might keep working for someone, or launch a side hustle doing that “thing” that you love, or bite the bullet and branch out on your own – but it’s all there waiting for you to press GO on that change! You can do it!