Jessica finds the right fit

When Jessica Bennett decided to go back to study as a mature-aged student, she never could have foreseen she would end up joining the Chisholm Business and IT teaching cohort.

Here’s a fun fact about Jessica Bennett.

She can solve a 500-piece puzzle in as little as 42 minutes.

In fact, she’s so talented at doing jigsaw puzzles, she is heading to Spain in September to represent Australia in speed puzzling at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.

When it comes to Jessica’s career path, it’s a bit like the puzzles she enjoys doing – all the pieces have fallen into place, but she’s made it happen.

Jessica was working at a contact centre when she decided she wanted to further her education.

She was getting frustrated with being told she couldn’t get a promotion without a qualification.

Being a mother of two, Jessica looked online for an education provider that offered flexible study options and a course she was interested in. Chisholm stood out from the crowd.

Jessica enrolled in Chisholm’s online Diploma of Business and never looked back.

The qualification covers a range of areas, from recruitment and mediation to professional development, workforce planning, risk management and managing people and finances.

“What I enjoyed the most about the course were the teachers,” says Jessica. “They were very supportive.”

“The online Diploma was very self-driven and I’ve always been a leader and organiser.”

“I found the whole online learning experience to be really suitable to my particular needs and lifestyle. I could still work, I could still have a life outside of education, but it was just a way to further myself.”

Jessica proved to be an exceptional student and was nominated as Vocational Student of the Year at the 2023 Chisholm Education Awards.

Through her role as a Student Ambassador for Chisholm, Jessica was offered a position in Chisholm’s Marketing and Communications team while still studying.

In class, her teacher would often call on Jessica to do peer-teaching during the Diploma. And just like that, Jessica found her calling.

“I’m actually looking at starting to teach with Chisholm,” says Jessica.

“I already had a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, which I completed the week prior to starting the Diploma of Business.

“I’ll be starting out teaching the Certificate III in Business traineeship.”

Jessica says Chisholm opened many different doors.

She is really excited about getting started in a teaching role and says she might even bring her passion for puzzles into the classroom.

“Doing a jigsaw puzzle tells you a lot about a person – it really builds on the basic employability skill set - how quickly they get frustrated, what their tactics are, how they perform under pressure, whether they work in a team or as an individual, who’s a leader, who is a support person,” says Jessica.

“It's one of the things I want to investigate further when I start with the trainees, to get them to do a 200-piece puzzle and see what that reveals about their personalities.”