OTC Graduate nominated for National Network Ireland award!
The College is very pleased to announce that Cathy Chiduza, a social studies graduate of the OTC, has been shortlisted for the Network Ireland, Business Woman of the Year (Louth Network), where winners will proceed to the National Network Ireland awards on the 26th September 2025.
Read Cathy’s success story below, which clearly demonstrates the vital link between educational qualifications and learning, with being able to maximise opportunities for growth and development in our social care sector:
I have behind me +25 years in healthcare (I thrive on excellence). An immigrant from Zimbabwe back in 2000, I started the healthcare journey in London as a temping healthcare agency worker. I quickly enrolled for a diploma course in community mental health with Middlesex University, whilst working as a support worker in one of the UK’s leading charities.
On attaining my diploma, I rose to a deputy project manager position within a mental health rehabilitation organisation in West London. With this experience under my belt, I relocated to Ireland in 2005, and quickly got a job as a Team Coordinator supervising two small teams. In 2006 I moved into a disability service and began hearing about educational possibilities with the Open Training College (OTC) where students could work and study at the same time. This model of delivery really suited my circumstances and after a successful application and interview, I enrolled for a social care level 7 degree with the OTC in 2008. That degree was the launch pad for my subsequent enrolment in the one-year, add-on level 8 honours degree, and I graduated from that programme in 2012.
At the OTC I had expert lecturers who drilled HIQA and its standards into my head. This gave me a solid foundation in the guiding principles which, still today, inform my current practice. Other areas that stand out from my learning at OTC are John O'Brien's five valued experiences, social inclusion, diversity, person centred planning – all of which have become second nature.
I am married 26 years and I have 3 boys aged 23, 20 and 6 years old. The older boys were very young when I was at the OTC, so I had to constantly juggle work, kids and college studies. The flexibility of the OTC learning model, however, made it possible. My work life balance was greatly affected but I knew what I wanted to achieve and I was determined to achieve my goal.
Thrilled with the third level learning journey experienced at the OTC, I enrolled with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) for a master’s degree in healthcare leadership and management, and upon graduating in 2015 I moved on to a bigger charity organisation which is funded by the HSE and stepped down from a management role to focus on my self-employment journey.
In 2017, I fulfilled my dream and I registered my healthcare business - Holistic Healthcare Ireland. To date we have looked after more than one hundred clients in Louth, Meath and the surrounding areas, and have supported families and other larger home care agencies to support people to continue living at home for as long as possible. We have also created employment opportunities for over 30 people. I started the business to make a difference in the lives of people living in Louth and to improve on healthcare service provision in Ireland and for my own legacy.
I am so delighted to have been shortlisted for the Network Ireland event and wish all my fellow nominees the best of times ahead.
Cathy Chiduza