GROWING INTO A NEW LIFE

Nicola Ibbotson was 23 when she applied to join an Access to Higher Education course in Science at Cambridgeshire Regional College in 2021.

"Before my course, I was working at a supermarket and I was very unhappy with where I was in life," she recalls.

"I feel like I was a different person then. I was quite anxious, and I hadn't done well growing up at school. I'd had a lot of distractions and hadn't done well in my exams. I didn't really have much confidence at all. My mindset at the time was that I was stupid, that I couldn't do anything. That's what I'd felt like for my whole life, till I completed the Access course."

During the pandemic, she'd discovered she had in interest in lichens and their symbiotic life cycles. She'd also done some work on a farm and had become interested in crop science. She'd come to realise that she wanted to work in plant biology and so had looked into taking an Access to HE course as a way to pursue that dream.

"My first day starting the Access course at college is still one of the most nerve-wracking days I've ever had. I didn't think I'd be able to do it. I was so scared of failing. I almost quit the course during my studies because I was so convinced that I wasn't intelligent enough for it."

In fact, she'd already arranged meetings with the college's finance team and careers advisor to tell them she was planning to leave… before one of her teachers convinced her to stay.

"So, I persisted. The course helped me build a wide range of skills. Presentations were especially important – they really helped my communication skills. They gave me the confidence to have open dialogues with people."

At the end of her course, the college gave her their Student of the Year award.

Then, after completing her Access to HE course, Nicola went on to study Plant Biology at Aberystwyth University, and ended up graduating with a first-class honours degree.

"I found out that the Access course had prepared me very well for university – where I ended up doing well in part because the Access course structure was so perfect: by the time I reached university I understood referencing, statistics, academic reading, and the basics of biology.

"My head start from the Access course helped me so much. I wouldn't be where I am today without it."

Nicola went on to work as a technician at the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Science – where she still works and where she is now in the process of applying to undertake a PhD within her current research project at Cambridge.

She has ambitions to continue in research and is also interested in working in the field of food security.

"I am just so, so happy that life has turned out this way, and I have my Access course to thank for that," she says. "My mental health has improved so much, and my confidence is much higher than it ever was before doing my Access course.

"I'd encourage anyone thinking seriously about doing an Access course to go for it. You don't know where it will take you, but it might be somewhere much better than where you are now – and it probably will be."