Young mums receive confidence boost thanks to life skills course

Young mums in Banbury, Oxfordshire are brimming with confidence after passing a life skills course with flying colours.

Ten residents from Rachel House, a scheme for young mums and mums-to-be run by Sanctuary Supported Housing, have passed a 'Learning Power' City and Guilds course.

Run in partnership with Oxford and Cherwell College, the six-month part-time course is tailored to the individuals learning needs and includes modules on healthy eating, coping with change, budgeting, caring for dependents, drug and alcohol awareness, sexual health, problem solving and communication skills.

The project started as a pilot last year with four women taking part.

Inspired by their success, 10 more women enrolled and received their certificates at a ceremony at Rachel House.

Holly Mugridge is a project worker at Rachel House and a qualified further education lecturer, which enabled her to run the learning sessions in-house.

She said: We are really proud of their achievements as many of the young women have had bad experiences of learning before now and have found a lot of barriers to accessing qualifications.

Its always good to show the local community that our residents and staff are working hard to ensure that when they leave the project the young women are better equipped to fulfil their potential in life.

I have seen a real boost to the self esteem of people who have taken part and many have expressed interest in doing more training in the future.

The project has been made possible thanks to funding from the Learning and Skills Council, which helped pay for resources and a crèche.

Comments from students:

21-year-old Misty, mum to one-year-old Callum said: I decided to do the course because I had a lot of time to spare and it gave me a break from Callum. I feel that my reading has got better because of the course and now I want to go to college to do childcare when Callum is older.

Laura, mum to one-year-old Toby and Scarlet, aged 4 months, said the course had improved her communication skills.

The 19-year-old said: I know how to understand peoples body language and tone when they are talking to me. I would really like to get a job in the future but its going to hard to think about it at the moment with two kids.