Why did you choose to study Retail Course and why MSL?
Like to be honest I’ve been to different courses, like I didn’t even know where I was, I didn’t have any idea what I was wanting to do. I did money management at MIT and the Early Childhood course, I did tourism – I had no idea what to do. Then I saw the website and it was saying come and study here and I clicked on it. To be honest I didn’t like retail, and then I rang MSL and I spoke to the lady and she was explaining what it meant and I was like “do you do customer service in retail?” and she said yes and then she said it was free for Level 2. At that point I still didn’t know what I wanted to do but I still came in and filled in the applications and started the course.
On my first day, I can see different things happening and I started liking the course. I didn’t really like the other courses because I didn’t feel I could get on with the tutors and it was hard to ask them questions because I didn’t get that feeling from them. But then I met Seu and she set us up with goals that we had to come up with. My first goal was to finish the course. I thought it is time to try something different and give it a go – that’s the right thing to do. Another goal was to come to class everyday and I have to graduate this course. I studied hard and knew I had to achieve this. I set these goals and everyday I kept thinking, I have to finish these goals. I also needed a job so this made me want to come to course. I kept coming everyday and I noticed a difference in myself. I was a very quiet person and I didnt like to talk to people, but with assistance and role play it helped to give me confidence. I had to give it a go and because I did it made me happy and excited and what I was doing. I can see different things happening because the other course I felt was boring. At MSL I like how they do role plays and you do stuff. Not like other courses I have been and you sit there and look at the screen or they give you paper and you have to read on your own and after that they give you assessments without explaining more – that was like for me, “Oh ok, well that’s nice (sarcastic tone)”. I can see that doing practical makes me get used to it and helps me to understand better and more. After I finished the first course, I thought I have to give another go for the next level, I wanted to get more experience and more knowledge because I wanted to work in customer service. Now that I’ve finished both levels I feel that retail is my thing now. When I go to the mall to give out my/our CV’s we are all just confident to hand them out to employers. It’s like we are selling ourselves. One of the lady’s said that it was cool to see that we were out there putting ourselves out there like that. Most apply online but we are doing in person. We said that it was good to do it in person because when you put your application online you can’t tell what the person is like, but now they are handing out ourselves so they can see how we present ourselves and see our confidence.
I worked at Bin Inn for a weekend and I was doing shop assistant work, I felt like there was still customer service stuff but I was doing labelling and other things and it felt like it was warehousing and I didn’t want to do that. So when I applied at Postie Plus in Onehunga I was talking to the Manager I gave her my CV and she called me not long after and offered me a job and did up my contract. This is my first clothing retail job.
What do your family/friends think?
To be honest to them at first they were thinking I wasn’t going to finish this because I had been to so many courses and I didn’t finish it, they kept asking me, “are you going to finish this? So they were surprised when I finished both level 2 and 3. They said it was good and it was good for them to see that my mind was made up. It’s good to have something different and know what you want to do. They are definitely proud of me and especially when I got a job too, they said it was really good.
It’s good that Seu is trying to encourage us to come to the course, she texts us. It’s good to see that someone is trying to get us there and finish what we started.
Would you recommend MSL to friends of family? What would your advice be?
I talked to my other sister who is still at college and I told her it doesn’t matter if you want to go to uni because you can still end up doing warehousing. I’ve seen heaps of my friends and they went to AUT and MIT and then they end up packing. To be honest I said MSL has really changed me and really got me to what I want. They said they will try. My sister says she really wants to study hospitality because it’s fun. I saw some of the practical stuff they (MSL) were doing so I told my sister to come and study. She is thinking about it. My aunty was also studying here before me, that is how I heard about it but that was ages ago, it took me a while but I finally did it.
