My story begins by telling you a little bit about myself. I have been out of the workforce for about six years now due to a back injury (new window). I also left the workforce to look after my sister and her daughter because my sister became ill with breast cancer (new window). During that time I fell on ice, hit my head and damaged my hearing nerve resulting in losing my hearing (new window) in both ears.

In January of this year I felt I was ready to re-enter the workforce. My goal was to obtain full-time employment or begin an Office Education Program through SIAST or SIIT. I found my disability became a barrier to finding employment because I was a work safety hazard. I wear hearing aids in both ears and cannot identify noises in my surroundings, or hear on the phone properly. Even with my hearing aids I sometimes cannot understand what a person is talking about unless I am face-to-face and sitting close to them, so this became a barrier for furthering my education in a huge classroom setting.

In March of this year my friend was attending school but I was unaware of what it was all about. She realized that she needed to tell me about it because she said I would fit into this program and had all the qualifications to be accepted. She brought me a brochure, and after reading it I agreed with her and called to set up an interview. After my interview with Nikki I was accepted and excited to start the program on April 9, 2013.

Before entering the program at the Neil Squire Society in Regina I knew I had a goal, but was confused and feeling lost about what direction I wanted to take my career path on. While participating in the Employ-Ability Program this learning opportunity has given me knowledge, self-esteem, and confidence to better prepare myself in all aspects to re-enter the workforce again. In Career Counselling I found the in depth analysis reports very interesting. By matching your interests and preferred styles of working and learning you could find your career motivators and identify your core values to make yourself a career profile. I learned about personality traits that I thought would never be important in job searching or on a resume. This helped me to develop the, Skills and Abilities section on my resume. I found the Career Development module along with learning hands-on basic computer skills was the most benefit to me. I was feeling lost because I had no computer skills to update my resume, and no job searching skills. I had no idea that writing a cover letter and preparing for an interview were so important in finding and keeping full-time employment. I now am able to explore career opportunities and create a resume and cover letter. I am able to walk into an interview well prepared with high self-esteem and self-confidence and leaving knowing I did the best job possible.