Upon leaving compulsory education, I had no real plan for how my future might look. After a short spell working in the post room of a large investment bank in the City of London, circumstance rather than a clear career plan landed me on a plumbing course, engaging in further education (FE) as a learner trying to find my way through the transition between education and work. For the next decade of my life, I worked as a plumber, upskilling to move into gas engineering and central heating specialist work. However, my plumbing career taught me far more than how to install and repair systems. Through this work I learned hands-on practical skills, how to problem-solve and how to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients. I also learned a lot about who I was, how I coped in high-pressured situations, how I communicated with people when tensions were high, my work ethic, and my interpretation of professionalism.,
Some time later, a chance conversation with an apprentice who was studying plumbing at a London FE college led me to explore what a career teaching plumbing might be like. This, coupled with my own positive journey in a vocational learning environment – experiences that were distinctly lacking through my years in compulsory education – led me to wonder if I could give other young people the induction into meaningful education that I had myself experienced in FE.
Taking my first role in FE as a Plumbing Tutor wasn't without significant challenge. I had arranged with my new employer that I would shadow an experienced teacher for the first two weeks of my new role with the intention to learn fast and ready myself to teach. However, the agreed two weeks were cut short at lunchtime on day one when my manager informed me that I would be needed to teach my first class solo, that afternoon. I will never forget walking into the workshop knowing that the learners in front of me could feel my fear. It was a sink-or-swim moment, but the support of my colleagues and line manager got me through those difficult first few weeks and months.
Once I had found my feet, I remembered why I had made this career move. I wanted to impact the lives of learners and show them a different side to education, just like my plumbing teacher had done for me previously. As such, I threw myself into the role. I enrolled on a Diploma in Education and Training and worked towards becoming a qualified teacher. I became incredibly interested in the different approaches to teaching and the different ways we learn. Education had always seemed like formal instruction to me, but I started to realise that the more impactful educational experiences were those in which the teacher and the learners explore topics together, each bringing their own unique lens, influenced by their lived experiences and socio-cultural lives outside of education.
Of course, the challenges of teaching didn't completely disappear as I became more experienced. Teaching in FE is a tough job, and I have eternal respect for FE teachers as I know how creative they have to be on a daily basis to work towards the educational ideals of creating the future workforce of the nation. However, not many professions can provide the same level of job satisfaction that you get when that learner, or group of learners, understand that concept they have been struggling with. When they work collaboratively to achieve a common goal and you can see and feel their excitement when it all comes together. Or, when they pass that exam which they have worked so hard to prepare for. Those are the experiences which make all the hard work seem insignificant.
After teaching plumbing for around eight years, I started to teach English GCSEs. I did this as I had always had a passion for language but also because teaching learners on the GCSE resit programme in FE felt like the new challenge I needed. These are learners who had not managed to achieve a GCSE grade 4 or above in previous attempts and the condition of funding states that they continue to sit GCSEs in English and maths until they're 19 years old. This is commonly in conflict with what they want, often feeling disillusioned and disengaged after varying levels of poor school experiences. The challenge was significant and I had to lean on all of my teaching experience to adapt my pedagogy to successfully engage these learners. However, I quickly learned that the greater the challenges, the greater the aforementioned feeling of satisfaction. Working with a learner who had absolutely no confidence in their ability to write, despite being a gifted writer, and who left at the end of the academic year with a Grade 6 in their English Language GCSE and a self-published novel on Amazon was and will always be one of my proudest moments in education.
Whilst teaching English, I became evermore invested in the nuance of the GCSE curriculum and the types of literacies we ask learners to read, analyse and ultimately, exhibit their skill with language against. This line of inquiry led me to discover a passion for practitioner research in education. Through the experimentation of using language and literacies more aligned with the socio-cultural realities of my learners, I was able to discover new ways of engaging disenfranchised learners. This experimentation snowballed into a full-scale practitioner research project. The study was initially nurtured through the Education Training Foundation’s MA Short Course, which is delivered in collaboration with the University of Sunderland and progressed from there to a Masters degree level, through to PhD. Through this research project, I achieved my doctorate in the summer of 2025. But more importantly than that, I have been able to have some impact on English Language curricula in FE and continue to work towards improving the learner experience on this study programme.
Throughout my career in FE, I have continued to be a learner myself. After completing my teaching qualification, I undertook a range of professional development courses, all focusing on improving my ability to teach and mentor other teachers. Through achieving Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) I became an Advanced Practitioner, working with new teachers and teachers who need some support to develop their practice, I led on the delivery of T Levels when they were launched in 2020, and I took on various management roles.
For me, a move into FE was not only a career change but a process of ongoing personal development and an exploration of new career experiences. And that is the very ethos of FE. FE is a place for retraining and career change, but it is also a place that embeds the passion for learning in those who pass through. FE is about lifelong learning. Coming away from the idea that education is something you do when you're young and before you join the nation's workforce, and towards a notion of continuing to learn and develop through your entire career. We live in a society where the concept of having a 'job for life' is an ever-shrinking possibility. We have to upskill and develop throughout our careers, and FE and skills, as a sector, adapts swiftly and expertly to the ever-changing shifts in economic needs and pressures of the country's wider employment landscape. Industries evolve rapidly, and the FE and skills sector continues to provide accessible routes for all learners to reskill, adapt and pursue their professional and personal ambitions.
Although the sector changed my life, my account of being a learner, teacher and manager in the FE and skills sector is not unique. Countless others have had doors open and life-changing experiences through FE, all in their own individual ways. Contrary to my beliefs as a plumbing learner all those years ago, FE is more than the conduit between training and work. It is that, of course, but much more; the FE and skills sector is the creator and driver of opportunities.
