Glyndŵr University's campus blog

Two students who graduated from different degree courses have joined together to help working families in north east Wales who are struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.

Stephanie Griffiths, who studied Education and Childhood Studies, and Andrea Roberts, who studied Early Childhood Studies, have both secured employment after graduating from Glyndŵr University.

Employed in posts funded by the Welsh Government, they work in support of Families First, an initiative designed to eradicate child poverty in Wales.

Stephanie, 24, from Trefor, works as an outreach officer for Wrexham Council. “I work in the community offering help, advice and signposting to families who can benefit from services which they might be unaware of,” she said.

Andrea Roberts, 31, of Froncysycllte, is settling into a new job as an outreach officer for Sparks, a project which is focused on the workplace.

Andrea works closely with employers in Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire, providing advice and guidance to employees to ensure they know about financial help which they can access.

“You hear a lot about families who are struggling financially because of unemployment but the Welsh Government have recognised that there are in fact a significant group of people who are in work yet still struggling to make ends meet,” said Andrea. “Just because you might be in a job and your household income is over £25,000 this doesn’t mean to say you’re not in need of help with things like childcare and paying for bills and this is where the work that I do comes in.

“There’s a whole range of support out there for people and my job is to raise awareness of that.”

As well as sharing similar career routes, both students possess remarkably similar routes to university, having entered higher education through non-traditional routes.

Stephanie, who used to work in retail, progressed onto higher education study via a Childcare and Education Diploma (CACHE) course.

Andrea enrolled on the course as a route back into employment, having left a job with North Wales Police to raise a family.

“I’ve always been a people person,” said Stephanie. “Working in retail just wasn’t right for me – I wanted a career where I had the chance to make a difference to people’s lives.

“It was hard coming back to study as a mature student. I don’t have any kids but I’ve got a house and bills to pay. But all of the effort has paid off. When you help a family it makes everything worthwhile.”

Andrea said: “I loved my job with the police – I was working as a communication officer in the control room – but it just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to work with children.

“I carried on doing 20 hour weekends with the police for two years while I was studying and when I decided the studying was going well I gave the job up. It was tough but I couldn’t have done it without the support of the tutors on the course. They were absolutely amazing. You could see them at any time if you needed anything and they were so helpful and approachable.”