A double degree, with distinction.
Victoria Robertson graduated from Otago Polytechnic last year with a bachelor of applied management degree (majoring in sales and marketing, as well as business change and transformation).
The 42-year-old gained her degree via Capable New Zealand.
Based in Dunedin, but with offices in Wellington and Auckland, the Otago Polytechnic programme enables people to have their skills and knowledge formally assessed.
It then supports older students to gain any additional knowledge they need to complete their tertiary-level qualification.
Robertson, who moved from North Canterbury with her farming husband and young daughter in mid-2014, learnt of Capable NZ through a friend and was motivated by a desire to add the "credibility'' of a degree to her already impressive CV.
"For me, the biggest part is not squirming when someone asks me what my degree is in.
As a business consultant specialising in change management, HR and marketing, clients assume that I have a degree.
"Now I can simply answer without having to explain that I chose not to take that path many years ago, being far more eager to get out there into the big wide world of work at the ripe old age of 18.
"As you go through the process of Capable NZ, you understand that actually not everyone has done what you have and not everyone can.
"It's quite refreshing that it's not a ‘one-size-fits-all' course.
"I thoroughly enjoyed it and, in a strange way, it was quite rewarding having to sift through more than 20 years of working, pull out relevant learnings and applied theories, courses that I'd been on, psych evaluations that had been conducted on me, ideas and problems I'd created and solved over the years,'' Robertson explains.
"It was enlightening and exhilarating to rediscover oneself and, without any arrogance, just acknowledge some pretty good achievements in my career over the years.''Since graduating, Robertson has joined Capable NZ's team of assessors.
"I have now sat on the panel of interviewers and have seen it from the other side.
"This has been enlightening, too, as every student has a different life-story and background.''
