After gaining a degree in film production, 27-year-old Hannah Jones realised it wasn’t the industry she wanted to work in for the rest of her life so began to look for alternative options.
Hannah said: “I started to look at jobs on cruise ships as I thought I could use my skills in a customer service role, and it was while I was looking that I found out that they employee beauticians to offer a range of treatments to clients onboard and this sparked my interest in working in the beauty industry.
“I enrolled for the Level 2 diploma in beauty in 2017 and progressed to the Level 3 diploma the following year, and combined studying at college with improving my practical skills by working in a salon.
“As part of the course I got the chance to do work experience in Braga, in Portugal, for three weeks through the Erasmus scheme and it changed my life! Because I was a bit older than lots of the other students on the trip I was able to support them with budgeting and being in a foreign country and I really enjoyed passing on my knowledge and advice to them.
“The tutors on the trip saw how well I interacted with the other students and suggested that I consider becoming a tutor myself. I really enjoyed theory lessons on my courses and realised that being a tutor would enable me to combine this with my practical skills, and my experience of being a student at college, so I enrolled for the PGCE in post-compulsory education run by the college in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton.
“As part of the course I spend one day a week working alongside tutors at college to gain experience of working in the classroom and have gone from observing lessons to delivering learning activities myself and assessing students’ work.
“I’m really enjoying being in an academic mindset and using my industry experience, as well as the skills I gained on my degree – such as time management, customer service and technical skills – on my teaching course.
“I’m eager to learn more and really excited about becoming a tutor in the future!”
