Computer Skills Open Up For World For Kyoko

Learning new computer skills has opened up the world to a Wales-based Japanese entrepreneur who was brought up in the ruins of Hiroshima after the Second World War.

Kyoko Gibson, who was born just three years after the Japanese city was devastated by the world's first atom bomb, is in the process of setting up an Internet business selling Welsh arts and crafts thanks to the skills she has gained with support from lifelong learning organisation ELWa.

The 55-year-old grandmother now lives in Upper Cwmtwrch, near Swansea with her electrician husband, Les, whom she met in Japan. The couple moved to the UK in 1976 and Kyoko worked for Panasonic in Newport for several years before the Gibson family set up their present home.

Keen to run her own business exporting Welsh arts and crafts, particularly to Japan, she sought help from Powys Training in Ystradgynlais to learn the computer skills she needed to trade on the Internet.

Through the Work Based Learning for Adults programme funded by ELWa, Kyoko achieved a string of qualifications, including IT level one key skills, Improve on Learning level one and the new CLAIT certificate.

She has also received support from the Welsh Development Agency and soon hopes to be selling goods online from her home-grown e-business, UK Trade Chic.

“Powys Training were tremendous because they taught me from scratch,” said Kyoko. “I had ideas what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to go about it.

“Although I can speak English the training was difficult, but Powys Training have guided me and I have had excellent tutors. I am now really looking forward to having a successful business.

“I am going to promote Welsh arts and crafts mainly to Japan because when I used to go back there Japanese people would talk about English, Scottish and Irish but never Welsh arts and crafts. Welsh people produce great work and I want to promote it in Japan.”

Following the horrific scenes she witnessed in her childhood in Hiroshima, she has devoted her life as a wife, mother and grandmother to working for world peace.

Anne Harries, a training officer with Powys Training in Ystradgynlais, praised Kyoko for her dedication and commitment to learning the skills she needed to run her own business.

“It’s a great achievement,” she said. “Kyoko’s spoken English is good but she faced a different challenge when it came to reading and writing. She always had a dictionary by her side and her tutor explained things to her that she didn’t understand.”