Getting back to studying: A journey of perseverance

Having left school at 18 to study stage management at drama school – very much a hands-on learning experience – heading back to traditional education after 40 years was a daunting thought.

Like many people I 'fell' into housing having begun my career as a temporary administrator and worked my way up to a managerial position.

The dreaded back to school feeling

When reports of new regulations were being discussed my heart initially sank; I had not liked school at all. I’d have nightmares about being back in a 'classroom' situation and I was filled with dread. I’d think: do I need to change my career after working within housing for over 30 years, and what on earth would I do?

In the end, I decided to put on my big girl pants and bite the bullet. Once my decision was made, I realised that I would need to get ahead of everyone else needing to do a qualification and therefore applied to my employer, in November 2025, to do a CIH level 4 qualification. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do it as soon as I could so that I could get it over and done with before the added pressure of looming regulatory deadlines.

I knew it would be a challenge to do a level 4, but I felt that the CIH level 3 may have been too easy due to my years of experience, and CIH level 5 would be too big a step given the years of not being in further education. I opted for CIH level 4 and was sure that I wanted remote learning so I could balance it around my lifestyle and work. My request was approved by my employer, and I began my course in January 2026 with the CIH Housing Academy.

Tackling studying in my own way

Alongside the learning sessions, I attended the Housing Academy’s practical study workshops to try to get a grip of what was expected; Harvard referencing looked like a whole other language, but I knew I could figure it out with time.

Assignment number one came along. I can't tell you how many times I read and re-read what I was supposed to do, going into panic mode about whether I understood what I was doing and wondering what I had taken on. I was so worried about doing all of it correctly, it was a full-blown panic!

Then I started to write down my assignment and that was another nightmare, starting and re-starting the same assignment and the same task, not confident in myself at all. I wasted a lot of time repeating myself. In the end I decided to just go for it, I did what I thought was right, what could go wrong? After all, if I hadn't got a handle on it my tutor would guide me. This helped give me the confidence to take each step forward, and to know that making mistakes is just a part of learning.

Learning to have confidence in my abilities

I learnt a lot with that first assignment in particular; not just to follow the tasks in order – yes they need to be in order when I submit it – but to actually work on the bits I understood better first and do the more difficult bits last. That way I felt a sense of achievement as I managed to complete some of the tasks – the whole thing became less daunting. A bit like you are taught at school, do the questions you can do first and come back to work on the trickier bits, rather than wasting your whole time on one task and not being able to complete the rest.

An unexpected bump in the road

If I thought that was challenging, in March, just a couple months into my course and the day before my first assignment was due, my lovely dog pulled me over and my head slammed into a telegraph pole. I managed to submit my first assignment on time, although I didn't realise how injured I was until later that day when I almost collapsed and had to attend A&E. I was diagnosed with a concussion, and over the following week I became worse, resulting in more hospital visits and a brain scan. Turns out my brain was swollen and bruised and that brought a lot of issues such as balance, not being able to look at screens and processing issues – not great when you are in the middle of one of your most challenging learning experiences in the last four decades!

I was relieved that I had submitted my first assignment though and thought I would be able to recover in time to complete and submit assignment number two. I seriously underestimated how severe a concussion was or the healing involved.

Time moved on and I was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome; this meant I was still struggling and my brain was taking time to heal. I was told it could be months before I was back to 'normal'; one of the impacts of this was extremely limited time on computers. 

Tough choices to make and personal challenges

Everyone was telling me to postpone my course until I was healed, however it could be months before my brain would be well again and I really did not want to delay completion of my course – by this point I was determined!

When I finally returned to work, I was on a phased return to try to build up tolerance to screen time, which also meant no working in my own time to complete assignments. It's taken four months to get back to full-time hours but regardless of this, I pushed on and have completed two assignments (with the post-concussion syndrome), both of which resulted in passes on first submission. This was such a huge achievement from my perspective!

I have to say though, applying what I learnt whilst completing assignment one, meant assignment two was much easier for me to complete. There was no panic this time and it was a much smoother process.

Still going and looking forward to the future

I am still not fully healed but things are better, and I am currently working on assignment four. It has helped that my tutor has been understanding of my predicament. I let him know as soon as I had a diagnosis as I wasn't sure at that time what the impact was going to be and if I would need extra time to complete the assignments; as things turned out I haven't needed it.

Surprisingly, even after the early dread, I have really enjoyed learning again and have found myself contemplating a CIH Level 5 Diploma in Housing. Although, I do quickly slap myself to remind myself not to get too carried away! Level 4 is sufficient for now, but nonetheless I have thought about it and maybe that’s one for the future!