Blogs

Women are often at a crossroads between family commitments and financial independence. While times have changed, a woman’s primal instinct is to be a nurturer and caregiver first.

Nur Saiyidah Mohd Nordi's decision to take a one-year sabbatical leave after the birth of her third child took a turn for the worse when the pandemic hit. She was asked to leave her job of three years as a visa operations officer handling work, study and travel applications. She says, "It was so sad having to leave. I was worried about my family's financial situation and plans”.

Concerned about her uncertain future, Nur Saiyidah quickly adjusted her lifestyle to rearrange her financial and housing affairs. Then, with the encouragement of her husband to upskill, she started researching courses from NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB) while attending to her new born. She added, "I found that NTUC LHUB offers a myriad of courses, and I took the opportunity to sign up for the Digital Supply Chain Management (SCM) Executive course. I saw it as a great opportunity as I wanted to pivot in my career and try to enter a different industry".

Among the skills that Nur Saiyidah picked up were Excel and Power BI. While juggling between taking care of her children and attending the courses online, she shares that the hard work paid off. “The course has deepened my knowledge in the supply chain industry, and I have a better understanding of how business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) logistics work. In addition, she was incredibly excited to learn the SAP Ariba system, as most companies are using it today for their business needs.

Nur Saiyidah advises those in a similar situation to not allow inertia as the stumbling block to upskill and to be resilient in unpredictable times. "I thought I would be in the same job until I retire, but when the opportunity presented itself, I followed my gut and took the leap of faith,” she says.

Nur Saiyidah's decision to upskill benefited her professionally and personally, giving her the confidence to face her future and achieve her goals. With newly acquired skills, she now works in the logistics field where she handles freight forwarding.

Reach out to our Skills Consultants to find out more about how you can transform your life through learning today!