Oleksandra: "After the first learning experience, I don't understand how I lived without it before"
Oleksandra 42, former kindergarten teacher, entrepreneur, current home pastry chef, and vocational trainer
Previously Oleksandra took a series of culinary workshops on the base of ALEC "Pershyi" (the center is located in the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol). Also, she took courses "The basics of social media marketing", "Self-study without torture", "The confident user of PC", "The German language", "How to transform a hobby into business", and others.
Now Oleksandra belongs to internally displaced persons. She claims that she uses skills gained during her study at ALEC in her professional life. Moreover, thanks to the courses, she got a new job and became a public union member.
Oleksandra describes her experience in the field of adult education:
"My way to adult learning started unusually. My younger son didn't want to study. And a psychologist recommended to become a role model for the child by starting to learn something new myself. By chance, I got to the webinar "Home pastry chef" and decided to learn how to cook modern desserts. Unfortunately, I could not find confectionery courses in our city, but I was able to jump on the last train to a series of confectionery workshops of the "Pershyi" ALEC. After the workshops, I realised that I like confectionery and I'm pretty good at it. During the study, I got the necessary knowledge I was missing. And I proceeded to develop in that direction. So I took the self-development courses at "Pershyi" ALEC and already clearly understood how to plan my life further. During the different courses, I got to know the team of "Pershyi" and realised that I needed to come exactly there."
Over some time, Oleksandra became a part of the "Perhsyi" ALEC team and a trainer of confectionery courses. Thanks to a small workshop, she completely changed her life: her job and profession. She understood that she needed to return to her first teacher's education and start working as a vocational courses trainer.
"I entered the university for further development in a new professional direction, where I currently study food industry technology. Now I have a dream - to make a small reform in vocational education and make it possible for children to obtain contemporary knowledge."
Oleksandra added:
"After the first learning experience, I don't understand how I lived without it before. I constantly attend new and new courses and programs in both professional and self-development directions. Thanks to learning at "Pershyi" and the active cooperation with ALEC as a trainer and a team member, in the most difficult times of 2022, I managed not only to survive but also to gain new experience that still helps me today."
Ukraine 2023