Mum-of-six close to fulfilling her dream job of midwife

20 Sep 2019 09:08
Published by: Daniel Almond

Katie Tarr wanted to enrol at Leigh College in order to pursue a career ambition but didn’t have the GCSEs from school.

Now 31, Katie, who has six boys, has completed her Access to Higher Education Diploma – Health course at Leigh College with full distinctions.

She has earned a place on a prestigious BA (Hons) midwifery course at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).

Katie said: “From having my first son, I decided that midwifery was something I wanted to do.

"I believe it’s empowering and I want to be able to support women during pregnancy, labour and child birth."

Katie had to have a caesarean section during one of her pregnancies and felt she was almost forgotten about during the procedure.

She added: “It should be all about what the woman wants. I want to support women through their journey."

As Katie didn’t have the qualifications needed for her Access to Higher Education course she initially did functional skills English and maths before doing GCSEs in English, maths and science.

Juggling her family commitments and working part time on weekends for a catering company, Katie managed to keep 100 per cent attendance despite being heavily pregnant with twins.

“I opened my GCSE results in the hospital after giving birth to my twin boys,” Katie said.

Katie’s determination and hard work seems to have paid off as she was awarded with an Academic Excellence Scholarship from LJMU giving her an extra £1,000 a year throughout her studies.

The future midwife highlighted the importance of receiving funding for her Access to Higher Education course and how supportive her tutors were.

Katie said: “The advanced learner loan paid for my course and took away the worry.

"I won’t have to pay it back either if I complete my degree.

“I’d advise that anyone can return to education but seek advice first and attend open days to speak to tutors and current students.

"This all helped me and I had great support from my tutors who gave a lot of time into us and they really want you to achieve.”

“I really enjoyed meeting new people, making friends on the course and having the support network was great.”

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