What does it mean to care? It takes commitment and a natural passion to join the care sector, traits our former learner Nigel Price has in buckets. Driven to care for others and be the support that he craved during a darker time in his life, Nigel enrolled in our Level 3 Health and Social Care course and drove his career forward.
Stuck on a negative path where choices seemed limited, Nigel was able to turn his life around and achieve his goals with the support of Complete Skills Solutions. From a young age, Nigel had been on the wrong side of the law. These struggles snowballed into more hard times until he could no longer see a way out. Clinging to active addiction as a reprieve, Nigel found himself in a revolving door of jail and rehabilitation centres.
That was until Nigel put a stop to this pattern. He vividly remembers the day, May 26th, 2016, marking it as the day “my life changed”. Nigel was back in rehab but this time he stuck with it, pushed through and left a new man. Commenting on his time since, Nigel expressed;
“I am proud to say that I am now going into my 8th year clean.”
An incredible achievement that he works towards every day. Getting clean was the catalyst Nigel needed to create a new direction for his life. He focused his time towards helping others and became a support worker at a homeless hostel. Following this, Nigel started work in a harm reduction hostel supporting homeless men. These men also struggled with addiction, many facing alcohol issues. Nigel was able to offer support from personal experience and turn his past struggles into a positive.
With his career path set out, Nigel wanted to advance his knowledge and skills further. Fuelled by a desire to help others, Nigel’s goal was to one day achieve his level 3 diploma in Adult Social Care. After mentioning this, his manager looked into possible options and introduced Nigel to our Health and Social Care courses.
Nigel applied and was accepted for our fully funded Level 3 Health and Social Care course. In the beginning, he didn’t have much faith in himself or if anything would come of the course,
“Due to me not having any formal qualifications, I wasn’t very optimistic and did not know if this was something I could achieve, so I wasn’t expecting much. But through perseverance, support and knowledge from life experiences, I gained so much from the course.”
Nigel found that he could achieve anything through hard work and commitment to his goals. His life experiences gave him a unique perspective that allowed him to empathise with those he was caring for. From being in a position in need of care and support himself, Nigel was a natural when caring for others.
During the 15-month course, Nigel gained new knowledge and skills to boost his career in care which he could apply to assisting people of all ages. But beyond the taught course content, Nigel also learnt about himself and underwent personal development, saying that he gained so much from the course. When asked how the course benefitted him, Nigel remarked that his confidence had had a huge boost, and that he actually did know and understand more than he gave himself credit for.
Rejoining education later in life can always be difficult as many face the same confidence issues as Nigel did. However, he did not let this hold him back from achieving his goals and his journey is evidence that you can achieve anything if you are willing to put in the time and work for it.
The online delivery of this course allowed Nigel to fit in his learning around his work schedule. He said,
“The support and delivery that my tutor gave me was absolutely incredible and it made me believe so much in myself and what I was capable of.”
Following his completion of the course this year, Nigel received his Level 3 diploma in Health and Social Care like he had set out to. This has allowed him to progress even further in his career and we couldn’t be happier for how far he has come. Nigel finished the course with a wealth of knowledge and a renewed sense of self, saying;
“I now understand that whatever I put my mind to, I can achieve and succeed, I will be recommending this course to anyone that is wanting to complete this diploma.”
Nigel expressed his gratitude and how he will be “forever grateful” to Complete Skills Solutions for this course and everything it has afforded him. However, we wish to express our own gratitude back. We are grateful Nigel chose to trust us to support him as he continued his education, and we are proud of the journey he has travelled in his life to be where he is today.
