Every year on 8^th March, everyone joins together to celebrate International Women’s Day.

In keeping with the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, the #BalanceforBetter campaign focuses on building a more gender-balanced world. To give more women an opportunity to get qualified, AVADO strives to create flexible courses allowing busy women (and men) to continue to pursue their dream career.

In light of this, we have decided to celebrate a few of our own female students who have achieved great things with us at AVADO.

Many of our potential students have concerns around finding the time to study a professional qualification, whilst still dealing with the daily demands of life.

CIPD student Ana Vale overcame this challenge by getting her online qualification whilst working full-time and looking after her young daughter. Ana would be writing a report when her daughter would say ”come and play with me mum”. She would always stop and pay her attention before going back to work, and says she ”couldn’t have done that in a classroom”. Her advice to fellow single parents, or any parent looking to study? ”Don’t stress too much – studies are very important. Kids come first but you can manage, it is possible.”

We asked Ana how her qualification helped her career…

“As soon as I finished level 3, I went straight onto level 5 and soon after completion, I was hired as a Group HR Officer. It’s such an amazing opportunity for me, I’m so excited and my CV looks great now!”

Along with Ana, CIPD graduate Charlotte Wise didn’t let having a family stop her from following her dream.  Charlotte completed her qualification whilst on maternity leave, we asked her how she managed this…

“The support I received from the tutors at AVADO was brilliant. The final unit of the CIPD course required submitting video evidence and when I first discovered I had to do this, I’ll be honest, I panicked! Not only am I a bit of a technophobe but I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do this with a small baby. However, after fantastic support from my tutors, I managed to submit my final assignment via video with my 6-month-old son on my lap! I subsequently passed the unit and last year celebrated having gained a new qualification whilst on maternity leave.”

ACCA graduate, Allie Haggerty had 1 full time job, 3 kids… and completed 3 courses in 4 months! Wondering how she managed to juggle her studies with other commitments? Allie explained “I finish off my working day as a Commercial Director, then I see to the children, spend time with them, goodnight story etc., and then I have time to myself to do my study.”

All these amazing women didn’t let their life commitments, whether that be children or having a full-time job, stop them from getting qualified. That’s why here at AVADO, we continue to work hard on creating our online qualifications so more women like Ana, Charlotte and Allie can feel like they are able to pursue their dream careers and make their mark on the world.