CASE STUDY: Lauren Reeves

When we spoke to Lauren she was studying on the Foundation Degree in Television Production at Amersham & Wycombe College. She previously studied at Basingstoke College of Technology where she obtained her National Diploma in Multimedia.

 

When I left school I didn't really know what I wanted to do, I assumed I would just take the traditional route, mostly because I wasn't aware that there were alternatives available. After starting my AS levels I realised that it wasn't going to be the route I wanted to take, and so I eventually dropped out and went on to try a National Diploma in Multimedia. I found it to be more art based at first than I had originally anticipated but one of the tutors at Basingstoke College of Technology persuaded me to keep going until the end of the first term. She was right and I really enjoyed it after that. When it came to moving on after my ND, the same teacher suggested that I might like a Foundation Degree. She herself went to one of the open days at Amersham before recommending it to me, and the support she gave me really encouraged me to go for it. BCoT really helped us with our progression, setting time aside during the day for students to work on their UCAS applications, and using it to contribute to our overall marks so we felt it was worthwhile.

Although getting to grips with the technical knowledge was a challenge, I really enjoy the course, in particular what is known as 'intensives' where we get a programme brief at the beginning and have two weeks to develop our ideas and produce our project before we then show them to the rest of the group at the end of the two weeks as part of the assessment. Alongside my course I am also a part-time runner for a TV channel. In TV you have to start from the bottom and work your way up, so I'm hoping that when I graduate, I will go on to do the BA top-up here at Amersham and then go straight into the industry as a trainee or onto an apprenticeship.

My advice to other students is to go and see a careers advisor, because making the right choice to begin with is really important, and if I hadn't had good teachers I may well have just walked away from my education after making the wrong choice.

We spoke to Lauren in October 2008.

Read Lauren's updated story at www.creativeportal.co.uk!