Alex Chamouret

34 year old Alex Chamouret has moved from a City job to freelance translating, blending family responsibilities with an enjoyable career. And it’s thanks in part to learndirect.

Alex met her French husband during a year out in France. She converted her university course to English History and Literature so that she could remain in France with him – and by the end of her degree she was fluent ‘like a native’. The pair married there and came back to England after the birth of their first child in 1997, after which Alex started working as a bilingual PA in the City:

‘I stayed there eight years but the job really wasn’t a good fit for me. One day someone asked me to translate something from French into English and I found myself thinking, “That was so easy, why aren’t I doing that for a living?”’ Alex had already used learndirect to source a music course for her husband at Kingston University. Only natural, then, that she should turn to learndirect for help again:

‘I knew I wanted to become a qualified translator but I didn’t know what sort of course I was looking for. I wanted to do the right course for the sort of work I was aiming for – but I needed expert advice to find it.’

Alex went onto learndirect’s website and then rang the helpline:

‘I explained what I wanted to achieve and that I didn’t want to do a course and then find it was irrelevant. They were fantastic. They came up with exactly what I needed. I enrolled on the course and applied to take the first exam towards the Diploma in Translation with the Institute of Linguists. You can take the exams in stages over five years. I did the first exam in my first year, then took a course to help me pass the second. I finally passed the third and final exam in May 2006. Both the exams and the course were home-based study, so it worked really well.’

Alex has now been working as a freelance translator since November 2005, having finally given up her job in the City the previous summer:

‘I was given a contract for translation work with a market research company pretty soon after I finished my other job and I’ve worked with all sorts of companies since then, from other market research companies to health companies and businesses, both in France and here in England. I now have three children, so working from home fits in beautifully. I’d definitely recommend learndirect. If it hadn’t been for them none of this would have happened, because I would probably have given up, not known where to find advice and stayed in a job that I hated! learndirect pushed me in the right direction, giving me the courage and the confidence to try something new. They gave me all the information I needed and completely turned everything around for me. They helped me change my life.’