Mark proves teachers wrong

WARRINGTON Collegiate student Mark Taylor was told at 14 by one of his school teachers that he would never achieve anything in his life.
Having left school with no qualifications above a D at GCSE, he now has a string of qualifications to his name, with awards and certificates to prove that he is the cream of the crop.
Mark has recently been named as the Outstanding Achievement Award winner at the Collegiate’s recent graduation ceremony and Cheshire Colleges also recognised his success by naming him as the Student of the Year at their Higher Education Awards Evening.
He said: “It’s been a wonderful year. I’ve graduated with an HNC in Business after an amazing journey to discover, at last, my true vocation. It’s been challenging and demanding, but it’s worth all the hours of study to realise my dream. My next step is a degree which I’ve been accepted for by the University of Chester.
“School wasn’t for me. I left at 16 and drifted through a series of unskilled jobs until being taken on at 21 as a holiday representative. Those 5 years overseas really changed my life. I had to work to targets, learned new skills such as sales techniques and complaint handling. I loved the customer service aspect of the job and my confidence really started to grow.”
On returning to the UK, Mark knew he enjoyed working with people and decided to train as a nurse, taking a job at Warrington Hospital as an auxiliary nurse. Sadly Mark developed dermatitis as he was planning to enrol for his nursing degree and was forced to abandon his plans. Luckily an opportunity presented itself for Mark to work on a computerised patient management system in Warrington Hospitals A&E department. Before he even realised it he had successfully managed a project without any previous project experience. Mark believes this is thanks to his career overseas.
Mark took advantage of his career changing direction and qualified as a Prince2 Project Manager which led to a permanent role at East Lancashire Hospital NHS Trust where he has worked for five years. When Mark started in this position he found himself back in formal education for the first time since he left school, as he started teacher training, a requirement of his new role. Mark saidL “I was a little nervous returning to education especially when I realised it was the first time I’d sat in a classroom for 18 years!”
During the second year of the course Mark was diagnosed with dyslexia, a eureka moment, when all his struggles at school made sense. Mark explains, “A student gave a presentation on dyslexia and I thought—that’s me!”
Motivated and inspired by learning, Mark completed the teacher training and was hungry for more. Since he’s been provided with software and support, Mark found studying has been made easier, with the result that he’s just graduated with an HNC in Business from Warrington Collegiate, an associate college of the University of Chester. He is now looking forward to converting it to a degree.
Mark added: “The support at college has been brilliant. I’ve enjoyed my time in education and don’t want it to stop. Winning two awards was a wonderful surprise and a tremendous confidence boost especially after my previous experience of education. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who had a hard time at school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. However, my story proves it’s never too late to get back into education and succeed.”