Lyndsey Little
After leaving my career and raising my family I knew that when I returned to the workplace, I could not go back to what I was doing before and now was the perfect time to start something new. I knew I wanted to work with people in a caring and supportive capacity and thought that social work may could be it.
I left school with 6 GCSE’s (I hated school so very rarely went!) so without an Access to Higher Education diploma, university wasn’t an option, so 5 years ago I went to college and have not looked back. While on the Access course I visited an Open Day and on this, realised that Social Work wasn’t the course for me but studying Sociology and Criminology as a joint honours course would still open some pathways in areas that interested me.
9 weeks into the first year I decided to drop Sociology and study Criminology as a full-time subject as I loved it so much. There was not one module out of the whole undergraduate degree that I did not enjoy, or that was not relevant to a career in the criminal justice sector. I finished my undergraduate with a first-class with honours classification which is astounding for someone who hated education and was pretty much written off in high school! At times it was hard juggling three small children and a full-time degree, but the team were so supportive, particularly Amy, the encouragement and assistance that she gave me is one of the reasons that I am where I am now.
I have stayed at Worcester to study the Understanding Domestic and Sexual Violence Masters Degree and I am a little bit sad that I am on the final leg of my academic journey. I start my dream career in September, I am going to be a case manager on the Drive Project who are a domestic abuse perpetrator programme who work with high-risk, repeat offenders over a period of 12-18 months supporting them with their needs and encouraging behaviour change to prevent future harm.
Eventually I would like to work specifically with sexual offenders, and I do believe that the modules that I sat in both my Undergraduate and Master’s degrees with the experienced and knowledgeable lectures and set me up with the foundations required my present role and my future.