Busy mum now making English a priority
Having spent her first nine years in Australia raising three children, Jing Jing Chua didn’t have time to devote to English lessons.
But with her two daughters (aged 5 and 8) now both at school and free childcare available at Navitas Skilled Futures, the busy mum decided the time was right – for her and her three-year-old son.
Jing Jing now studies the AMEP part-time at Navitas Bankstown, and her son attends onsite childcare at KU, where they are both enjoying learning new skills, improving their English and making friends from other cultures.
Jing Jing arrived from Malaysia in 2013 with no English and no family, apart from her school teacher husband, Marcus, and his relatives and friends.
Living in her mother-in-law’s home in Condell Park, she devoted all her time to her family – her girls, Rosslyn and Mulan, and son Michael – helping teach her daughters Mandarin at home and Chinese school on Saturdays, and getting them to and from school, piano and ballet lessons during the week.
But Jing Jing, who worked in banking in Malaysia, said she hoped to return to work in Australia when she could, to gain greater independence and help her husband save for their own home.
“I wanted to go to Navitas to study English to improve my language skills. Then I can later on go to apply for a qualification at TAFE, to do office work and maybe become a human resource coordinator,” Jing Jing said.
Jing Jing worked in a variety of jobs in Malaysia, including in banking, a newspaper corporation and office work. She said while she had good skills she recognised she needed to improve her written English before she could have the confidence to get an Australian qualification and join the local workforce.
In the meantime she is enjoying her time at Navitas Skilled Futures.
“The teachers are very good and I have friends from Vietnam, Africa and Lebanon. Even talking with them helps with my English because we all have to speak English for conversation. I am very happy to come to Navitas.”