Jana Hovhannisyan

I am originally from Estonia and have lived in the UK for 18 years. I ended up coming to the UK because my husband lived here. In Estonia I was a nail technician for 10 years and I even studied fashion in college back home. However, when I came here it was difficult to get a job because of the language barrier and I had 2 kids shortly after which I had to look after on my own whilst my husband went to work.

I have always been a very creative person, so Floristry seemed appealing to me at the time. It was something new I could learn alongside my English course.

I really enjoyed learning how to use structure flowers to create different designs and found the teachers to be wonderful. The mixed class was a great experience, and while the online work was challenging, it helped me develop my digital and language skills. Many of my peers spoke English as a first language which was a little intimidating but through conversations and listening to them I improved my English and learned from the perspectives of others.

Hannah, my tutor, is amazing and very strong at digital skills any questions I had she answered. She always has lots of energy and is positive about what she does so it makes my class want to learn.

My best achievement at WAES has to be completing all of my courses especially Floristry gaining all the knowledge about how to be a florist opened doors for me.

As part of my studies I completed 40 hours of work experience at Mary Jane Vaughan and I eventually secured permanent part time employment. My role involves making floral arrangements for events. I’m still balancing my family life an 8am start is challenging because my kids go to school but I was able to negotiate, and I start a little later.