"Now I’m older, I really appreciate the value of education"
Kelly Hibbin left school in 1988, with very few GCSEs.
She went straight into work at 16 and worked for a shipping company. After that she worked for the building firm Dewhurst’s, studying her AAT to become an accountant there. Then, after starting a family over 20 years ago, she started working in Marks & Spencer’s as a shelf stacker.In 2011, a bombshell fell when her eldest daughter, who was 13 at the time, could not move when she woke up one morning; it transpired that both her daughters suffered acutely from a condition called joint hypermobility syndrome. Many difficult years followed with non-stop hospital appointments for both her daughters and lots of stressful times.
Inspired by the family’s excellent social worker that helped Kelly and her daughters a lot through the difficult times, Kelly enrolled on the Access to Social Work course at Barking & Dagenham College.
Kelly headed to UEL to study towards a BA (Hons) in Social Work. Despite the fact she will be 50 years old when she finishes her degree, she is really happy with her decision to go back to study.
I’ve progressed from my first week on the course when I cried saying ‘I can’t do this!’ to my last assignment for which I got a distinction. I never thought I’d get back into education, but I just wanted to do something that would make a difference. The excellent social worker who helped us to access things and integrate the children into normal life really inspired me. We have brilliant memories of the camp and I’m so appreciative of the work that the social worker did. It’s really inspired me to go in to social work.
Education is wasted on the young - well at least in my case it was! When I was at school I just couldn’t be bothered, whereas now I’m older, I really appreciate the value of education. I’ve really enjoyed my time at college. The teachers are so supportive, I can’t praise them enough!
