Nicola Hembra, 25, from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, a Foundation Degree student at North Hertfordshire College, has won a much coveted bursary from the Helena Kennedy Foundation. She will now fulfil her dream to progress to university and complete a BA in Education.
Life has not been easy for single parent Nicola. She has overcome several personal obstacles to gain her foundation degree in Early Years – covering many areas of the care and development of young children.
At 17 she became a mother and was also caring for her own disabled mother, plus other family complications meant Nicola was compelled to abandon her ambition of going to university. Reluctantly she dropped out of education to earn a living and bring up her baby daughter; working part time caring for children in a nursery.
When her daughter reached full-time school age, Nicola grasped the opportunity to return to further education at NHC, to gain a professional qualification for the industry she was already working in. The "Early Years" Foundation Degree has a strong work-based element and involves seven hours a week at college, in addition to work-place assessment, and runs over two academic years.
Since graduation, Nicola’s employer has recognised her increased confidence and skills, plus the respect she has won from parents and promoted her to Deputy Leader. It has also been acknowledged that the Nursery’s reputation has increased significantly as a result of Nicola’s achievements and her specialist professional skills.
Nicola starts her BA in Education at the University of Hertfordshire this October and is due to graduate in May 2010. She acknowledges that without the HKF bursary she would not have been able to progress to university; Nicola says: "There was no way I would have been able to afford to continue with my education. It has helped to ‘replace’ my salary, to support both my studies and my family."
It was Susan Feltham, NHC’s Early Years Foundation Degree Course Deputy Director – Adult and Community Learning, who recognised Nicola’s potential early-on during her foundation course. Susan also realised that as a mature student with considerable family responsibilities, Nicola’s university funding needs could prove an absolute barrier to her ambitions, and made her aware of the Helena Kennedy Foundation award to which she could apply for funding support.
The result was that Nicola became one of the very few individuals in the UK to win an award, to be used to help disadvantaged students from further and adult education to complete their studies in higher education: 130 people in 2008.
Says Nicola: “Quite simply, Susan’s support has been immense.”