Access to HE student: Gill Beavon

Speaker key

JR: Jenny Rocke
GB: Gill Beavon

Transcript

JR: Gill, could you tell me a bit about your experience of the Access to Higher Education Course?

GB: Yeah, I did an Access locally at a local college, to me; quite accidentally, I went on a free taster course for 'ologies', Sociology, Criminology, Psychology, and the tutor persuaded me to have a go at an Access Open day. So I did that and all of a sudden I found out that I was being interviewed and doing a little statement and I was accepted onto the Access Course.

JR: And do you have any advice for someone who is thinking of enrolling onto an Access Course?

GB: I think I was very negative and kept thinking I don’t think I can do this, and once I actually got to college with the support of the tutors, they were fabulous and they really gave me encouragement and all the skills I needed to go on and succeed.

JR: Is there anything you know now that you wish you had known before starting the course?

GB: Yes, probably. I hadn’t really decided definitely which university I wanted to go to, and which courses I wanted to apply to, so once I actually got there and immediately we were thrown into UCAS applications, personal statements, and choosing courses and Universities. I think in hindsight I should have done more research before I started the Access Course and had a clearer idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do because to try and cram it all in to the first few weeks of college along with everything else was really tricky.

JR: Did you get much support from the college in that process?

GB: Yeah, really good support off all the tutors. UCAS was a little complicated but we did have HE Tool Kit lessons to give us a hand and take us through that, so there was always a college tutor on hand if you needed help, they would come over and guide you through it, so that was useful.

JR: Jill, thanks very much for talking to me today.

GB: Thank you.