Twenty-one-year-old Aziza Anjum has secured one of the ten apprenticeship places ring fenced for care leavers in the borough and has just begun an eighteen-month stint as an Organizational Development and Learning Partner Apprentice at Hounslow Council.
I went into care in 2014 at the age of twelve, on what’s known as a ‘full care order’.
I remained in care until the age of eighteen when I was put into semi-independence during the pandemic. But soon after my 18th birthday I went through a turbulent time and had a lot of battles with my mental health.
I was doing a lot of agency jobs but wanted a consistent income, so I withdrew from my A levels, even though the prognosis was good - I was predicted A Stars across the board.
I was living in Hounslow but was originally placed out of borough, so I was going to college in Surrey, and the commute from Hounslow to Woking, coupled with part-time work, just got too much for me.
I ended up in the hospital because of poor mental health but looking back I’m so grateful that I managed to get the right support and had the inner strength to get myself out of that situation. In retrospect, taking the decision to put my education on hold was a positive one. It takes guts to recognise something’s wrong.
I'm also a very firm believer that education doesn't have a deadline. There's always this this big expectation on timelines and deadlines, especially after you turn sixteen.
I feel like you should do it when the time is right for you. I know people study for degrees in their 30s, so, eventually I thought doing an apprenticeship was perfect for me.
I was working with Nando's for a couple of years in the interim. That was originally an apprenticeship as well. I came in straight as a supervisor but left the apprenticeship after six months. But I’ve stayed at Nando's for two years, and I'm still there just one day a week.
I retained a passion for learning while working there so I did a Level 2 in Suicide and Self Harm Prevention in Young People and Adults – poor mental health is common in hospitality. I wanted to support my team.
But I was always looking for other apprenticeship opportunities and this one came up through Natasha Woolman (Post 16 Case Worker at Hounslow Council). I was doing 50/60 hours a week at the time with a lot of lot of late finishes, so eventually it just got to a point where I just wanted to progress myself.
I didn’t want to be a statistic because traditionally the prospects for prospects for care leavers/previously looked after children aren’t great - only about 2% go to university, and a lot can get involved in the wrong crowd because of trauma. I wanted to avoid that in the best way that I could.
So, when this apprenticeship came up and I saw that it involved learning and development, I thought ‘this sounds great’! It was Monday to Friday and included an opportunity to get a qualification that’s transferable as well.
Although the work at Nandos was exhausting and not something I wanted to do forever, I recognise the leadership skills I’d picked up and I knew that I could use them in my new role.
I'm passionate about recruitment and developing people. And part of the qualification is about learning and development and creating organizational change.
I've always been quite academic, but I've got more self-discipline now. I used to associate my self-esteem with academia and was quite hard on myself. If I didn't get good grades that would kind of spiral in my head. It would cause a lot of negative self-talk. But I think the way that I've transitioned post school includes being a lot more kind to myself.
I can deal with trauma and coming to terms with what I went through and use that as an advantage. I've reconstructed my narrative as there's so many other avenues you can pursue. I want to pass that on to care leavers and working-class kids generally in our borough.
My general advice would be to believe in yourself and the concept of apprenticeships. I genuinely believe in getting people into work, because the traditional university route seems outdated to me.
I'm not saying study isn't relevant, but with the way technology and people have evolved post pandemic I think blended learning, earning whilst you learn, is a genuinely beautiful concept.
