Welcome to our case studies page, where you can learn more about some of our student experiences.
Each year, thousands of students work to achieve their goals with the support of NEC. Our courses cater for students looking to learn around varied schedules, and we are flexible enough to cater to any distance learning situation. Examples include an RAF serviceman who studies from his placement overseas, parents looking to return to work after raising children, mature students with full time jobs or home educated teenagers working towards GCSEs and A-Levels.
This is just a small sample of people who have worked towards their ambitions with NEC, and there are many more taking advantage of our flexible courses. A survey of our current students shows that they range from less than 16 years old all the way up to 85 years young. We also have learners based around the world working their studies around all kinds of employment, whether full time or part-time. Students come from all walks of life to learn with NEC. You can meet some of them below:
James Barker, IGCSE Combined Science
NEC's location in the UK means many of our students are British residents, but we also have a number of international students for whom our courses provide a means to access education that might otherwise be unavailable. James is one such student, enrolling all the way from Korea to study with us.
Lottie Blunden, A level Biology
Lottie, a single parent of four, is in her first year at university studying for a Bachelor of Science degree in midwifery. Getting to university meant starting virtually from scratch with science after a 25-year gap, at the same time as holding down waitressing, admin and cleaning jobs to support her family.
Kathryn Corrall, A level Politics and A level Religious Studies
Kathryn is on a high: she is off to King’s College London to study for an English degree. She can hardly wait to leave her family home in the countryside for a new life in the big city and is already getting her teeth into Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the first novel on the syllabus.
Sue Deans, A level Critical Thinking
Sue Deans first studied with NEC in the 1960s and went on to a career as an English teacher. Forty years on, Sue has come back to NEC and talks in her own words about the story of her educational journey, from leaving school at 16 to studying for an A level in Critical Thinking in her 60s.
Victoria Foster, GCSE Maths
All her working life, Victoria had felt frustrated that she wasn't able to pass her maths O level while she was at school. One summer, she realised that if other people could study for GCSEs in their 50s then so could she, and so made a pledge to achieve the grade C in maths that had eluded her over 30 years ago.
Isobel Hughes, various GCSEs
Home-educated Isobel found learning with NEC to be a fantastic way to study for her IGCSEs before moving on to study A levels in a college. Isobel’s father taught her maths himself, but she chose four more subjects from NEC to study as well: English language, geography, biology and child development.
Keziah Mwanyika, Level 3 Diploma in Pre-school Practice
Far away from the UK, NEC has helped one woman qualify for a second career and start planning a business that will have an impact on a whole community. Keziah has her sights set on running her own pre-school and nursery in the small town in Tanzania where her husband’s parents come from, on the border with Zambia.
Tracy Pettey, CMI Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management
With a busy home life and a six-year-old son to look after, mature student Tracy chose distance learning because it allowed her to fit studying around other commitments. She received sponsorship from her employer, with the agreement that she fitted her NEC course around her home life.
Catherine Speechley, IGCSE Biology and IGCSE French
Catherine has what she describes as a haphazard routine, with her hours of work always changing. She enjoyed school, but was frustrated at having to drop some subjects because there was a limit to the number of GCSEs pupils could do. Now in her 40s, she's catching up with the subjects she left behind.
Elliot Stevens, various GCSEs and A levels
Elliot has studied with NEC for many years, at both secondary and further-education level. He achieved top grades in his exams for A levels in government and politics, history and law, and was subsequently accepted to study law at Cambridge University’s Robinson College.
Kathryn Tompsett, A level Psychology
Kathryn's school sixth form didn't offer psychology at A level, so she opted to study for a distance learning A level with NEC alongside her other classroom-based A level courses. She had a lot of questions before she began, but once she got into the swing of things she found that distance learning suited her.
Mark Ward, A level English Language
Mark chose to study with NEC due to the very specific demands placed upon him by his job. A serviceman with the Royal Air Force, he studied for an A level while deployed in various European countries and Afghanistan – a situation which made conventional classroom-based learning impossible.
Julia Wix, various GCSEs and A levels
Julia is keen to challenge the view that young people educated at home lack the resilience built up by those who have been part of a school community. She believes that home education gives young people a wide range of skills, including managing their time and managing their money, that prepare them for adult life.
Sarah Yewman, CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Children and Young People's Workforce
When Sarah was looking to return to work following a break from her career to bring up children, she found an NEC course to be the perfect way to do so. Her story was picked up by Teach Nursery magazine, which ran a full-page interview with Sarah about her experiences of studying with NEC.