Let’s help you find what you’re looking for

Millie Orttewell (pictured) leads a busy life working as a Racing Secretary for pre-trainer Will Biddick. Finding spare time to develop her skills in a job she loves, alongside her current duties, has always seemed an impossible task. 

However, with the help of Racing Welfare, Millie is currently undertaking a level 2 in accountancy through the Careers Advice and Training Service (CATS) which she is able to fit in with her working hours. She says:

“We had a Racing Welfare representative come into the yard and explain the things on offer. I have wanted to do an accounting course for a while to help me with my job, so to hear that there was such a thing as CATS to help, it pushed me to look into it.”

With that support behind her, Millie enrolled onto the course and is now studying online. Racing Welfare offered to part-fund the course which took the pressure off Millie from a financial perspective:

“Trying to find a college course to fit around my job was difficult, so to hear that I would be able to continue working my normal hours and be able to do a course online through CATS was really appealing to me.

“I applied for a grant to help fund the course – Racing Welfare paid for 75% of my course and I paid the remaining 25% – this really pushed me to do the course as funding it all myself would have been tricky.

This professional training has helped Millie build on her current knowledge and to put those new skills straight into practise:

“A lot of what I am doing was self-taught, to be doing this course alongside working it really helps piece things together as I was already practising parts of the course so it just helped things make sense.

“I would most definitely recommend the use of the CATS service, I think it is really great to have the support from Racing Welfare and to be able to better ourselves at a job we love doing. The process to get onto the course was made really easy and stress free from the help of Racing Welfare.”