{"id":683,"date":"2024-10-08T10:35:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T10:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/?p=683"},"modified":"2024-10-08T10:35:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T10:35:22","slug":"graduate-stories-victoria-mccormack-iwcf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/08\/graduate-stories-victoria-mccormack-iwcf\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Stories: Victoria McCormack, IWCF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victoria McCormack, graduate from the BA (Hons) Integrated Working with Children and Families Top up degree<\/a>, reflects on her higher education journey as a mature student at the University of Worcester.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“As I sit and reflect on my graduate journey, I still find it hard to believe that a few months off turning 50 I have achieved a BA (Hons) in Integrated Working with Children and Families<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would consider myself a late bloomer in discovering what I wanted to achieve in my professional life and personal life. Having four children and dedicating my time and energy to raising them, I felt a bit lost and reached a crossroad in my life when my youngest child started school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I entered my career into the Early Years purely by fluke, covering holidays in my local preschool on a temporary basis. However, I quickly realised that this was the career for me, and I found myself as an apprentice in my late thirties. This opened up a whole new world of learning that I thought had been lost to me and showed me what I was capable of achieving. It was after the completion of my Level 3 in Early years that academic learning at a degree level was mentioned and my life in academia began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be fair to say that I was incredibly nervous when I started, back in 2019 at the University of Worcester to begin my Foundation Degree in Early Years<\/a>. There I was a middle-aged mum of 4, who had not sat in a classroom since the stone age, and I wondered what I was doing there. However, it turned out be the best three years of my life. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it was hard juggling full-time work, a family and studying, but the sense of achievement when I passed my Foundation Degree in Early Years<\/a> was immense. Therefore, it was not a hard decision to continue on and study for my BA (Hons) in Integrated Working with Children and Families<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support I received from tutors and staff was second to none as I navigated my way through my dissertation and no question was too big or too small. The friends I made throughout my graduate journey are now friends for life and I am truly grateful to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying at this level has expanded my knowledge in my working life and for the children I work with, but more importantly it has given me a great sense of pride and achievement in my personal life. It has provided me with a newfound confidence and belief in myself that had been lacking and I hope it encourages others, who may read this to follow their dreams.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the courses mentioned in this post, please visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FdA Early Years: https:\/\/www.worcester.ac.uk\/courses\/early-years-0-8-foundation-degree-flexible-distributed-learning-pathway<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BA(Hons) Integrated Working with Children and Families: https:\/\/www.worcester.ac.uk\/courses\/integrated-working-with-children-families-ba-hons-top-up-degree<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria McCormack, graduate from the BA (Hons) Integrated Working with Children and Families Top up degree, reflects on her higher education journey as a mature student at the University of Worcester. “As I sit and reflect on my graduate journey, I still find it hard to believe that a few months off turning 50 I… Continue reading Graduate Stories: Victoria McCormack, IWCF<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graduatestories","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childrenandfamilies.on.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}