Tudor Grange Academy, Solihull

I studied at Tudor Grange Solihull from 2002 - 2007 and went on to attend Solihull Sixth Form College to study Business Studies, Psychology, English and Health and Social Care for AS/A Levels. This then led me onto attend Nottingham Trent University to study Business for my Degree, with a yoar out as an industrial placement. My career has taken me to now work for Heineken as Senior Ecommerce Customer Manager. Tudor Grange provided a fantastic grounding for learning, development, and developing my thirst for knowledge. Tudor Grange taught resilience and helped build my self-confidence which has helped me flourish throughout my career. I am really enjoying working with the Alumni community to help the students of today navigate their career options.

After attending Stratford-upon-Avon College and studying Performance, Media and Film, I started in the world of work, gaining management experience in retail before moving into the automotive industry. Through my career at a premium automotive manufacturing site, I progressed through various roles from Operator, Team Leader and Production Leader to a Senior Learning and Development Leader, also gaining knowledge in engineering and lean systems through various roles. I am now the UK Learning & Development Business Partner at a leading, global packaging company, supporting the talent and & development strategy across 28 sites within England, Wales and Scotland. My time at TGAS taught me a lot which supported my ongoing growth in different areas. I learned confidence, creativity and good communications skills outside of the core subject matters like Maths and English, which have supported me on a daily basis in all my roles. I feel it's really important to transfer my knowledge of careers back into education to help prepare our future generations for their own individual development journeys, demonstrating how school provides the foundation for all the skills needed to be successful, in whatever path they choose to take.

I joined TGAS in 2009, and went through to the Sixth Form, studying Maths, Physics and German. It's always been my dream to be a pilot, so I applied for flying schools after finishing Sixth Form. There are 2 different ways to become a pilot, but I opted for the integrated training route. The application process took around 6 months, including medical exams and skils tests, before I was successfully enrolled on easyJet's MPL (Multi Pilot License) course. The training took 18 months on an intense full-time course, squeezing 14 exams into the first 6 months. Some of these exams include Air Law, Human Performance & Limitations as well as Meteorology, numerous Navigation exams & more too! After passing all of the exams, I moved onto flight training where I was lucky to spend 6 months in New Zealand. Without a doubt, the entire course is intense but so rewarding. My personal highlight has to be when my course mate and I completed a simulator session focussing on smoke drills and learning to fly an Airbus jet aircraft whilst the fightdeck is filled with smoke. Once I completed training, easyJet confirmed my job offer as a First Officer and I was assigned my 'base' as Belfast, where I have lived and worked since the end of 2018. Since starting my career, I have flown around 2,000 hours over many different countries (and airports!) in Europe. I fly the Airbus A319, A320 and A320NEO aircraft, carrying a maximum of 186 passengers. My shortest flight is just 18 minutes to the Isle of Man, and the longest is 5 hours to Dalaman, Turkey. TGAS taught me a variety of skills including how to study which was imperative for the first 6 months of my training, as well as time management and not only how to work with others but how to work with other people you wouldn't usually work with. Whether this is different ages, or backgrounds but still able to ensure a good level of teamwork. It is not essential nor a requirement to have a degree to become a pilot, but there is the option for you to get a degree alongside training for the fATPL (Frozen Air Transport Pilots Licence). This option could assist with financing through student loans and means you could leave training with both a pilot's licence and degree under your belt.