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Full Circle: From SWAP Student to Course Tutor
At 43, Louise (pictured second from right) returned to education — now she's inspiring the next generation
At school I was interested in a lot of subjects but none specifically. My friends went onto uni but at that time I was unsure what I wanted to do, so I left during sixth year and started work with a bank. 26 years later, in 2008, the banking crisis hit.
I was 43 and I saw an opportunity to do something different, so I decided to leave and enrol in college. I was by far the oldest student in the class but it didn’t put me off. I had completed several courses and had also done some exams during my time in the bank so I knew I was capable of achieving something!
I really enjoyed my SWAP year. It involved totally different subjects from what I’d learned at school and it also involved juggling being a mum, but I had a great support network in the background. I decided to progress to HNC/HND after my SWAP year, then go into 2nd year at Dundee University to study Psychology. The skills developed during my SWAP and college years helped me enormously at university where, again, I was the oldest in my year. I worked as hard as I could through college and uni and luckily it paid off. I knew that I wanted these years to change my life so that’s what made me stick with it.
After graduating in 2015, I applied for some part-time lecturing posts and, after a few years, I secured a permanent post with D&A College, teaching on the Social Sciences programme. I haven’t looked back.
I love teaching the SWAP class as they are motivated to be here and they all want to do well. They are always a diverse class, they have some life experience too, and I encourage them to share their own stories which in turn could inspire others. I wouldn’t be where I am now without having been a SWAP student. It certainly was a turning point which changed my life.
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