One Good Personal Learning Experience.
Introduction.
Having worked in retail since I left school thirteen years ago I have gained lots of experience in the retail sector so within my work place I gained a National Vocational Qualification [NVQ] 3 in Retail Management. The course was to be taken within work hours and take one year to achieve.
My Good Learning Experience.
I decided to take the opportunity to gain another qualification from my work place as I have been in retail many years and thought my knowledge would help make the course easier to accomplish. Having already done NVQs before I knew what they entailed. The other aspect was the NVQ would take place within work time and at my work place, so wouldn’t affect my home life as I ‘am very busy bringing up my young son. Also being older I still wanted to achieve and show I have a recognised qualification in retail, in which I had been working in all my life.
The tutor I had was Pete. He was asked to come to my work place and work on a one to one tutorial basis. He would then set me work in-between our visits .Pete was local to the area and was a little older than myself. During the first meeting, Pete was very friendly, talkative, helpful and warming. During each visit I was given a performance sheet to summarise how I was developing.
The meetings were in my work place office and sometimes on the shop floor to cross reference evidence for some of the units towards the qualification. Most of the work was computer based; answering questions all about retail management, broken down into different units. Oral tasks were also a part of the unit and were recorded for verifying.
Conclusion.
I enjoyed passing my NVQ 3 in Retail Management as having retail experience I found the course easy to work through as I already had the knowledge I felt I was just answering questions not actually working through a NVQ. I had plenty of time to work at my own pace, which didn’t make me feel pressured.
Pete was so helpful and made the course a real joy to do. Having one to one tutorials made it more personal and a relaxed approach; also Pete had the chance to recognise areas I required additional help in and was happy to do so. Knowing I can contact him by phone or email, if I was having problems reassured me.
One Bad Personal Learning Experience.
Introduction
Working in a Pet Shop and being the manager you must pass City and Guilds Pet Shop Management qualification, so the store is licenced to sell small animals. Your knowledge of Livestock management and Pet Store Management would be tested in exam conditions answering at random, questions and you must revise from a reference book full of what needs to be revised. Pampurred Pets set up a training day to help our group revise and if we have any problems or questions. Pampurred Pets is a chain of stores so we were going in groups from different stores.
My Bad Learning Experience.
The training was a part of the manager’s job description to pass the qualification so I could manage the store. So wanting to pass the exam, the training day would hopefully help. The training day was at a college an hour drive from home, which was to last 6 hours.
On the training day we were put in a basic class room, table, chairs and a white board. The class was filled with 25 people not all Pampurred Pets staff, people that were taking the exam also attended the day.
Our tutor stood in front of us and talked about the exam and how it would be formatted and the pass mark. Questions were to be kept till the end. He briefly skipped over the reference book we had been given to revise from.
Conclusion.
I did pass my Pet Management with a credit but sadly the training day didn’t help towards the pass. It helped to know how the exam would be formatted other than that I did not enjoy my