A FORMER Pershore College student who was inspired to follow a career in nursing after being a full-time carer for his grandparents has returned to the college to share details of his pathway to university.
Reece Hands, 28 from Alcester, completed an Access to Higher Education (HE) Health Professionals course at the college this summer and is now embarking on a degree in Adult Nursing at University of Worcester.
He had been working in logistics pre-Covid but was made redundant during the pandemic. In that time he started caring for his nan, and after his nan passed away became a full-time carer for his grandad.
After his grandad’s death, Reece joined a care company and then decided to head back into education, studying the Access to Higher Education course at Pershore College, which is part of college group WCG.
Reece secured a place on his dream course at the University of Worcester after his course, with 100 per cent of students passing the WCG course and heading off to university.
He returned to the college to speak with the new intake of students on the Access to HE Health Professionals course and share his experiences with them.
“I found the course online when I was looking to start my career in the care industry. My experiences in education hadn’t been great up to that point and I left school with three C grade GCSEs,” said Reece.
“After caring for my nan and grandad, I knew care was what I wanted to go in to and the course gave me a chance to follow a career in that area.
“The course helped me to get a place on the course at Worcester and I hope after the three years I’ll be able to go abroad and do nursing in places that are disadvantaged, with an organisations such as the British Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.
“It was great to speak with students who were in the same position as I was last year. I shared some of my experiences and made sure they knew the value I had got from the course, and how I was now on a university course because of it.”
Students who have graduated from the course at Pershore College have gone on to study degrees in subjects ranging from nursing and midwifery, to physiotherapy and dental health.
The course also has guaranteed interviews for nursing applicants to the University of Worcester.
Visit www.wcg.ac.uk/study for more.
