Stephen Bunting, 25 from Stockport, entered into the
insurance trade after leaving school at 16. For almost a decade, he
moved between different insurance companies and realised that he was
dissatisfied with the career path he was following but didn't really
know what job he wanted to do. Stephen decided to return to study and
signed up to learndirect in order to gain the skills he
needed to improve his job prospects.
Stephen said:
"I hadn't concentrated at school, and preferred going out with my friends when I was younger so didn't really take much in. I'd always wanted to work with computers but never thought that I was clever enough. I was worried that going back to learning would be too much like school, but actually everyone at learndirect was really friendly. You can work at your own pace and help was always at hand when you needed it.
"I found it really helpful to be able to complete my courses online as it made learning more flexible. It was especially useful when my dad was in hospital as it gave me the opportunity to keep up my family commitments and continue learning."
Stephen has completed learndirect courses in maths, English and IT and is now working towards completing his access course to get into university.
He said:
"I want to go to Derby University in September to do a four year honours course in computer games development - something that I never thought I'd be able to achieve. For the first time ever I'm actually really enjoying education and I'm not going to stop now that I've got that ball in motion. learndirect has really helped to point me in the right direction and their support has been fantastic. My family are over the moon at my progress and I've also encouraged my friend to do maths and English courses with learndirect. Learning with learndirect has given me the drive to get up and go and really achieve something with my life."
Model used to illustrate success story