As of this week, I have been working at my college for 14 years. Since I joined, I have had three different job titles and the college has changed its name. I’ve moved from one centre to another, and back again, and had a total of five different offices.

But when I was my students’ age, I was vehemently against ever becoming a teacher.

This is my favourite time of year at college as we start to have real discussions about progression. There are always some students who want to change direction entirely, and this year the pandemic has affected aspirations in all sorts of different ways.

Some have experienced caring and teaching responsibilities over lockdown and have felt how rewarding it is. 

I have three students who have a level 3 in an art-related subject but have been accepted to study teaching at university. Some say that they are worried about the job prospects in arts and music, while others say lockdown taught them how important it is to do something you love and so have doubled down on their efforts to succeed in creative subjects.

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‘I tell them they can be whatever they want to be’

In one of my favourite lessons, I show the students a timeline featuring every job I have ever wanted to do, and what I have ended up doing.

I begin with me literally wanting to be a cat, before realising that this was not really a career prospect, and deciding at age five to be in the musical Cats, which I saw as the next best thing.

I show them how I studied theatre at A level with no intention of doing it for a degree, but how I now perform regularly in musical theatre showcases (I’ve still not been cast as a cat, but I am hopeful). 

I show them that I started my professional life as a self-employed video producer, and then re-trained aged 25 as a teacher.

For students who choose their specialisms so early, it can be a relief to see that not everyone has to stand by a decision they made at 16, and that you can chop and change, and then change back. 

I also underline the importance of volunteering. I have done every job I have ever wanted to, because at times I’ve been prepared to do it for the love and not the money.

One student announced he wanted to be a sports journalist, and I told him about the time I ran a radio station and we needed someone to cover the local non-league team so I would traipse up to the “press area” (a cupboard with a patio door) and commentate on the game live via Nokia 3210 armed with nothing more than a team sheet and a vague notion of the rules of association football. Match of the Day were not clamouring to sign me, especially as I had trouble identifying players and would sometimes just have to call them “keeper” and “the number 9, you know the blonde fella. Works at the butchers. Andy something.”

I also tell them that I am not averse to leaving this role to live my dream: international shark wrangler and/or rock star.

There’s no level 3 course for that yet, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for T levels.