Despite the pandemic, three military spouses have successfully completed training courses through Project JEMS (Jobs & Education for Military Families South West), a programme to support to military families.
Salome, Louisa-Jayne and Simran explain how the experience has helped them to broaden their skills and open up future employment opportunities.
Having seen a Facebook post about free Functional Skills Maths & English courses, Salome thought achieving these qualifications would help her to understand her children’s schoolwork and enable her to be in a better position to help them.
She initially enrolled on the maths course and was allocated to the dedicated military families’ cohort at Larkhill. After attending drop-in sessions with her tutor Jane and completing the distance learning materials, she successfully passed her Level 2 Maths, just before the first lockdown.
Continuing her learning, Salome began studying for her Functional Skills English. Despite the teaching having to move online because of the pandemic, Salome was able to successfully complete her English speaking and listening exams virtually.
Salome’s tutor, Suzanne, was there to support her in every way and she said that her speaking and listening exams were “actually quite nice as Suzanne had chosen an interesting topic about social media and the impact it has had.”
Salome is now looking forward to continuing her learning journey and hopes to enrol on a course linked to healthcare or early years care which will help her to get a better job in the future.
As a key worker at Salisbury Hospital, Louisa-Jayne’s long-term goal is to go to university and study to become a Nurse Practitioner. 
As part of her learning journey, Louisa-Jayne is studying for her Level 3 Diploma in Adult Nursing with Wiltshire College, but needed her Functional Skills Maths and English at Level 2 to complete the course.
Having seen a Facebook post about the free Functional Skills courses offered as part of Project JEMS, she enrolled and was allocated to one of the dedicated military families cohorts.
After attending drop-in sessions, Louisa-Jayne was able to use the distance learning materials provided by her tutor to continue her learning during her days off and occasionally on night shifts when the ward was quiet.
Louisa-Jayne found that despite the teaching having to move online because of the pandemic, she continued to receive great support from her dedicated tutor.
She said: “Suzanne was always there to help me via email or virtual meetings on Teams and has been really supportive through this whole process.”
When Louisa-Jayne herself caught COVID-19, her tutor was able to arrange for her to have extra time to complete her studies once she recovered.
Simran was one of the first candidates to enrol on the Functional Skills Maths and English courses as a way to improve her employment opportunities in the future.
Having seen a post on Facebook advertising the free courses, Simran went to one of the drop-in sessions and enrolled for English Level 2 as part of the military families’ cohort at Tidworth.
Simran describes her dedicated tutor, Suzanne, as: “Brilliant, friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable, a very nice tutor to work with.”
Project JEMS is an innovative project involving a partnership between Army Headquarters South West, Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire College & University Centre, with the support of the Army Families Federation, Career Transition Partnership, Careers Advisory Service and the Department for Work and Pensions. The aim is to assist spouses and children of service personnel by offering tailored training for employment where there are likely to be vacancies and skills shortages.