Former South Staffordshire College student Aims to return

Craig Cook is a 37 year old mature student from Tamworth who has a burning ambition to teach.  Having started his academic career at the Tamworth campus of what is now South Staffordshire College, the greatest tribute that can be paid to the College is that he would like to return there, ideally to teach the same courses he took.
 
Craig’s experience is an object lesson to anyone who feels they have missed their vocation or simply missed out on education.  In 2008 he graduated from Coventry University with a first class honours degree in Psychology and is already looking towards a PhD, but it was his time on the Access to Education course at Tamworth that provided the spark which first lit his academic fire.
 
Craig’s enthusiasm for the Access course stems from his experience as a university “fresher”, comparing his own situation to those on his course who had come in straight from school and “A” levels.
 
“Both academically and in terms of general maturity, I felt I had an advantage”, he says.  “Some “A” level students seemed to have been “spoon-fed” information, whereas we had lecturers who instilled in us the discipline to go and research for ourselves.  They were always there to help but we were motivated for ourselves.  Many “A” level students had a problem with this but the Access students all knew to find resources and how to use databases”.
 
Craig remembers in particular Dr. Shirley Good from the staff that taught him but praises the whole team of lecturers that he encountered.  “When I went on to University, the staff found that we Access students were more receptive to change, more willing to work hard to achieve the standards required and generally to go that extra mile to achieve the highest mark possible”.
 
Craig himself showed great determination once he had decided to re-embark on academic study, even re-sitting GCSE Maths and English to improve his grades.  He signed up for a one-year Access to Education course but even then had to overcome being hospitalised and re-took some of the modules which included IT, Academic Skills and Tutorial as core skills, with additional subjects chosen by him of Psychology, Law, Biology and Human Relationship Skills.
 
Craig’s background includes time in the Armed Forces, in catering and logistics, but none of these were fulfilling either his ambition or his potential.
 
At South Staffordshire College he found the “encouragement, support and concern” over both his physical and educational welfare during quite a difficult time, which helped him to make the transition back into a learning environment.  So much so that he recently wrote to Chief Executive Principal Graham Morley to put on record his appreciation.
 
Now he is trying to get funding to embark on a PhD in Psychology while doing part-time private tutoring of Open University and “A” level students.
 
“I’d love to teach within higher education.  This has been a long process or deciding what I want to do.  Ultimately I’d love to go back to the Tamworth campus of South Staffordshire College to teach the Access course.  That would be the ultimate full circle to give other people what was given to me”.
 
In thanking all the members of staff on the Access course, Craig Cook pays a fulsome tribute to them which might well help to inspire others.  He says the “lit the flame within me for the desire to learn, which I now know will never go out”.