We love a success story at Able Skills and at times like these, to hear that former students have changed their lives for the better after completing our courses, it fills us with joy. Katie is one of those students, she approached us after seeing our #AbleSkillsThrowback on our Social Media Channels and told us how her decorating course changed her life...
Back in the summer of 2019, Katie started a 5 week City & Guilds Decorating Course with us as she set out to chnage her career. Coming from a background in the Sports Event World, this was a big change for Katie and she was prepared to go alone in a brand new career as a Painter & Decorator. Katie is now looking at returning to Able Skills to add to her skill set with our Tiling Courses!
Here is what Katie had to say about her training and why she chose Painting & Decorating at Able Skills:
Able Skills was the best option for me as I wanted an intense course with a hands-on approach, and have some flexibility over payments and dates also. I didn't want to go to college one day a week in a classroom environment with younger students so Able Skills offered me the perfect solution. After some online research Able Skills clearly ticked the boxes I was looking for as no-one else in the market appeared to offer everything Able Skills did. Thinking it was too good to be true I visited the site to see for myself. After a very friendly & welcoming tour from Rich, I signed up there and then for the 5 week Painting & Decorating course, ready to start the following week!
Having worked predominantly in an office most of my life, albeit within the sports/events world which is exciting in itself, I came to a point in my life where I wanted to focus on doing something more for myself and within an active and practical environment. As you get older I believe work/life balance becomes more important. I have always been into DIY (much like my very talented dad!) and wanted to explore more of my creative side so started to look at my options as a career.
I was rather reluctant at first to look at Trades as I was concerned about stereotypes but the support I had was fantastic. I settled on Decorating as I felt it allowed me to branch into a few areas such as tiling, restoration, wallpapering etc so to keep the variation. I knew also that its something I could learn quickly as like many we are financially constrained so I wanted to get out to work as quickly as possible and carry on learning on the job. Able Skills certainly gave me the foundation to do this.
Katie certianly achieved what she set out to and has since built her own business and is working in the industry around the South East London areas. You can see her on business - Katie Corkill Decorating - Checkatrade
Throughout her time training with us at Able Skills, Katie worked hard and recieved high praise from her instructors Mark and Chris, who are very pleased to see how well she is doing in the industry. We can't wait to have Katie back in our centre when she returns on our tiling courses and we look forward to her continuing her success story in the industry.
We would like to wish Katie the best of luck with her new career and that she is safe in these hard times!
If you have a success story you would like to share, let us know through our social media channels!