Ormiston SWB Academy

He decided to explore apprenticeship options, and as he’d always considered becoming a paramedic, he applied for a programme with the West Midlands Ambulance Service. He is now close to achieving his Level 6 qualification in Paramedic Science through working towards it on the job. He is earning a good salary and feels happy with the choices he has made.

Emma is currently in her second year of her law degree at Birmingham City University, and is fully immersed into academic life. Emma shared her experiences with students and was welcomed with lots of questions from students who wanted to find out more about what she’s studied. She then sat with us to reflect on her time at SWB and how she made the journey into law.

Chloe studied at Ormiston SWB Academy until 2015, and now works as a primate keeper at Dudley Zoo & Castle.

Her day-to-day responsibilities consist of feeding the animals and cleaning/maintaining the primates’ enclosures, but she also gets to do some really fun and rewarding things, such as training animals for veterinary procedures, weighing regimes and more. She also gets to aid in veterinary procedures, design enclosures, complete gardening tasks and a lot of DIY!

To get into her current role she needed to have a university degree, and so after studying Animal Management at Rodbaston college for 2 years, she then moved to Nottingham to study their 4-year BSc in Zoo Biology. The course enabled her to get relevant experience within the field by catapulting her into her first role as an Intern Primate Keeper at Drayton Manor Zoo, as well as learning the theory and principles behind good zoo keeping. After she completed her 12-month internship she was offered her first paid zoo role as a cover keeper. All of this experience supported her in the journey to be offered a full-time role in what she now does on a day-to-day basis.