One of our classmates Haslinda became the envy of the group. After completing the ICDL course, she signed up for more courses to upgrade herself. She was recently promoted to Administrative Executive in an interior design firm and received a 2-month performance bonus for the year.
Haslinda, a bubbly girl with numerous ear piercings and tattoos on both arms, would sit next to me during our 3-week computer course. During our chats, she revealed that she dropped out of secondary school as she was playful. She has worked at fast food restaurants, coffee houses and as a salesgirl, earning meagre hourly wages.
Although she is only 23, she is already a mother of 3 young kids and separated from her husband of 6 years. With 3 children to feed, she was finding it tough to work on shifts and make ends meet. She approached the Community Development Council (CDC) for help.
They found her a job as a receptionist at an interior design firm and also arranged for her to attended computer courses to upgrade her skills and enhanced her employability.
As Hasinda has only a Secondary 2 standard, I would often help her as she was struggling with the technical terms. She was determined to get her certificates, so she studied hard. She passed with flying colours. At the end of the course, her Boss was so pleased with her newly acquired skills that he gave her a raise and encouraged her to sign up for more relevant courses.
trainer teaching us Spreadsheet Function
She is now earning a monthly salary of S$2000 including overtime pay, a far cry from her previous hourly-paid service crew jobs. Seeing how much Haslinda’s life has improved, we are happy for her.
