Hello! My name is Evelina, I am 19 years old. I was born in Latvia. About 4 years ago, I moved from my country to England. When I came to the UK I was starting school in year 11 because my English language was not good enough for six form. When I finished school, I applied to City College Peterborough for an ESOL course.
I took one year to learn English and I actually did very well. I was so confused what to do next after my ESOL and what my plan was for the future? I knew one thing – I was always organised and good at helping others.
Then I got help from my teacher to apply for a Level 1 Business Administration course. Studying at this college, you can gain anything if you are willing to work towards it. The college accepted me for the Business course where I got treated very well and got lots of support. I gained more skills for customer service, learnt how to work in a business environment and how to produce different documents.
After completing Level 1 Business Admin, I applied for the Level 2 Business Administration apprenticeship for the receptionist post at the college. At my first interview I was so scared, because I thought they would not accept me and I didn’t know how to speak correctly. After a few days, I received a call from college saying I was accepted for the apprenticeship. From the shock, I replied back: ‘are you joking?’
Then I started my apprenticeship at 30th of May 2017. I needed to answer phones to transfer people to the right staff members from my organisation, leave messages, write letters and lots of other office tasks. I had my exam for ICT, English, Maths and Business. It is not easy, but if you really try, anything is possible.
Evelina Bebrisa, Business Administration Apprentice at City College Peterborough