past ten years they have moved with their two children of eight and six years to five different locations between England and Scotland. Emma firmly believes that during this time they have become closer as a family by supporting one another through the challenges they face with relocation and separation.
As their children grow older however, Emma finds it a challenge to maintain consistency in their education especially, when moving between Scottish and English curriculums. This challenge has shaped Emma’s career path dramatically since their children were just starting school. When Emma was first married she worked for Siemens in the traffic division, a role which she was able to move with on two occasions. When her second child arrived Emma felt the long hours and the extra cost of childcare was not sustainable and she made the decision to change her career.
In 2008 when they were based in High Wycombe, she studied childminding and started to look after several children from
32 Envoy Spring 2014
the quarter area, building up a good reputation. Six months later they were posted back to Scotland which meant Emma needed to retrain to qualify under Scottish legislation. Despite her enjoyment of childcare Emma felt the cost of retraining and having to keep building her reputation up from scratch each time she moved was not what she wanted. Emma’s youngest child was now at pre-school age too and it was hard for Emma to find the time to focus on her own education.
“I had to really think about what it was I wanted from a career but at the same time conventional working is not practical when you are moving regularly. I am a private person and I like to work autonomously. It took me a while but at the beginning of 2013 I enrolled on a City and Guilds Level 3 Dog Grooming qualification. I absolutely loved it and in just under a year I passed with two distinctions. In October 2013 I saw a station notice and applied for the Dependants’ Business Start-Up Programme. The two
courses have been the best thing I could have done to build my future career.
“I have gained all the skills to trade as a certified dog groomer and now have the business acumen to make it viable. The course gave me a good grounding in how to run my business from finance and legal issues to marketing. The information was also tailored to military families which, is important if you want to run your business from your SFA.
“The best thing is that I choose when and how I do it and work around family life. I average at the moment between three and five customers a week but the enquiries are flooding in. I meet so many more people (and dogs) and I have gained a lot of support from my fellow dependants’. I am sure that if we are posted I will easily be able to set up again, my network of contacts is so far reaching now that next time we move I will probably have a customer base before I even arrive.”
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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