This morning we celebrated GCSE and Level 2 vocational results.
It was great to see plenty of happy faces in the Heartspace. We spoke to a group of students who had been out of education and had returned to college to retrain in a new industry.
A number of students had come back to college to study English and Maths GCSE, in order to progress onto a degree or into a new career.
We loved hearing how passing these qualifications allowed students to advance into the next stage of their lives.
Holly Sykes, a Level 3 Access to Higher Education and Math’s GCSE student, was emotional to find out that she will be going to university next year to study primary education. Holly has come back to education after 10 years of working and is so glad she did. She said:
“I couldn’t call if I failed it completely, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I went for a spin class at 7 am this morning as I had too much energy, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’m going to cry, this is the best day of my life.
I loved the access to higher education. I thought I’d hate going back into education, but I made loads of friends, it was the best year, I had so much fun.
I had been working for the past 10 years and I’d always been putting it off. I’ve got a two-year-old and thought if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it.”
Connor McPherson received a C and a B in his English and Biology GCSEs. He left the Navy to come back to college so he could pursue a career in radiology.
“I came back to college to redo my GCSEs. I left the Navy as a Submariner as I want to join the NHS as a Radiographer. I’ve been accepted onto an access course in September and then I will be going off to do radiology at university.”
Jess Kew received a 5 in GCSE Maths and a 6 in GCSE English. She is going into her third year of Open University alongside a role in teaching. She said:
“I had done my studies abroad so I had qualifications equivalent to GCSEs, but they weren’t recognised in the UK. I came here to complete them because I wanted to get into teaching and I’ve actually just secured a job in a school as a teaching assistant.”