“I re-sat my maths GCSE at the college nearly 30 years after first doing it at school and was a bit trepidatious about returning to education after so long, but with the support of the college and a superb tutor I found it a rewarding and enjoyable experience,” said 46-year-old Robin Tinsley who needed to improve his GCSE maths grade to enable him to apply to join the RAF.
Robin added: “When I did my exams all those years ago I wasn’t very focussed and engaged with learning and, as a result, my English and maths grades were not high enough to join the RAF so I came to college as a mature student in September 2020.
“Midway through the course the country went back into Covid lockdown so lessons were moved online, but it was a smooth transition and the tutor continued to deliver excellent lessons that helped me to push myself further and achieve a higher grade than I initially anticipated.
“My grade meant I could apply to the RAF as a part time reservist and I am currently completing Phase 1 of my training. When I’ve completed all my training in 2023 I will be an intelligence analyst and my refreshed maths skills will be essential in this role – from basics like reading co-ordinates through to more advanced skills used in analysing extremely large data sets – as well as if I want to progress further in the future as I will need to be able to use maths formulae and principles to present intelligence to senior officers.
“I’m really glad I re-sat my GCSE at the college and would recommend it to anyone, in fact I would recommend it even if you don’t need the qualification for work as it’s been challenging and refreshing and if you have children who will be doing GCSE maths in the next few years it would certainly be valuable to acquire this knowledge.”
