lilliebet

I left school at the age of 16 with a couple of 'O' levels and never looked back. I went right out to work and didn't stop until I had my kids (even then I did part time bar work). When my daughter started school, I went straight back to working full time, as a Positive Action Trainee with Liverpool City Council. It was a vocational training course, lasting two years, aimed at minority groups (I got in by dint of being a "woman returner"). I'm still here ten years later.

As part of the training, I completed NVQs at level 2 and 3 in Administration and won the City & Guilds Award for Excellence but I never went back to academic study, much as I would have liked to.

Until now that is. The DMS is a postgraduate diploma in management studies, postgraduate being the key word here. In normal circumstances, entrants would be graduates and have experience of academic writing, study, critical reflection, referencing - none of our group have that. We are all City Council managers, from a variety of service areas and we are all very much in the same boat. While we know and understand the issues and have the experience, none of us have the academic background, so we're all learning from scratch.

Anyway, my grade for my first assignment, Customer & Business focus, was 57% and, while I know this is a "strong pass", it sounded rather low to me but, hey, I have no frame of reference, what do I know? This was our first attempt at writing an academic piece and we had no idea what to expect. After talking to a few of my group today, I've realised 57% is nicely mid-range. Other grades ranged between 35% and 70% so I'm not complaining.

Today I got my second lot of feedback, this time for Professional & Personal skills, 72% - the highest score in the group. Obviously I've found my niche. Strangely this has made me feel better about the first grade, don't ask me why.

It probably had a lot to do with what my tutor said to me today...

"Now I hope you believe that you are meant to be on this course"

Yes, I think I do!