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If you've just finished school, 6th form or college and the thought of going to uni just leaves you feeling overwhelmed, unexcited and unfitting to you and your personality and learning style I would fully recommend getting in touch with @TheBASE_BPC (1/?) https://twitter.com/adido/status/1359892224260063232
University 100% isn't for everyone, I personally have always been a worker, and I always completed my work differently to my friends in school, I definitely didn't really conform to the classroom setting & not going to lie - my teachers were often phoning my parents (2/?)
As they didn't think I was going to pass my classes due to me being generally 'zoned out' when I was in the classroom. And every. Single. Day. I told them: I will get the work done and I will study, but I can't concentrate in a classroom, no matter how hard I tried!
Overall, they didn't believe me and they kept calling my parents, who luckily did believe me and in the end I passed all my GCSEs and A-Levels. But I remember at the time just feeling so completely put down by the people who were meant to be my leaders & inspire me. (3/?)
I remember going in every single day and being told I had to apply for UCAS because 'I was bound to change my mind last minute' about not wanting to go to uni, which made me not want to go even more! But I also remember my dad suggesting that I look at apprenticeships, (4/?)
(God we're at part 5 of a thread I have more to say about this than I thought...) anyway... so when my dad said that I was like what? Why would I do an apprenticeship, I stand no chance of being accepted to one and I don't want to be a builder or anything like that! (5/?)
I was extremely wrong on that, the amount of choice that there is in apprenticeships is literally outstanding (check out @TheBASE_BPC for more info) but essentially all I knew was that I liked Media Studies, Data, Technology, and Creativity (6/?)
Little did I know then that my dream career was around the corner. I was also wrong about the competitiveness, I found the process of my apprenticeship quite seamless and while I can't speak for other industries, I was never ignored by a business as an aspiring marketer. (7/?)
So round up time: apprenticeships hold massive value, thank you at my parents for pushing me to get one, you get to learn on the job and the experience you've gained over the apprenticeships puts you well on track to get a placement when your apprenticeship finishes (8)
And some thanks at my a-level media teacher for being the only teacher that was actually inspiring and motivated me to do what was best for me (even if it didn't include doing my UCAS application and doing most of my work outside the classroom)
Sidebar: this isn't a dig at the uni, some people fully thrive in that learning environment and I can't devalue the real true value that comes out of a uni degree - it's just that I have the attention span of a pigeon and can't learn in one place x