Jamie Crowder - Career Academies UK– BTEC National Diploma in Business Finance, Level 3
Doing my course gave me the opportunity to be part of the
College's Career Academies UK. The Career
Academies UK is a national scheme. It involves having a mentor
who works in the industry, doing a paid 6-8 week internship over
the summer and being able to shadow an entrepreneur for a day.
That's all in the first year.
My mentor worked for HSBC and I had the chance to do
a ten week paid internship with Bloomberg over the summer.
The Career Academies UK gives you a foot in the door. It
also gave me a chance to put the theory I've learned into practice
and gives me great experience working in the places I want to get a
job in after I graduate. It's a fantastic opportunity.
Back in school I wasn't the best student because I didn't really
know what I wanted to do with my life. But when I came to the
Taster Day at Lewisham College it made me realise I wanted to do
business, and now I'm dedicated to my studies.
Since I've been at Lewisham College I've progressed so much,
both academically and socially. I'm now studying at Cass Business
School.
Lance Stanford - School of Business and CIT Lecturer
After I left school, I went to London Regional
Transport as an apprentice. That's how I got into the business
industry.
I later went into leisure management working for the Borough. I
stayed with Lewisham for some 16 years, and became contracts
manager with them, managing budgets dealing with millions of
pounds.
I got into lecturing as a hobby to start with. I was initially a
part time visiting tutor at Lewisham College, and then I applied
for a teaching post here.
Since being in the school of Business and CIT I've taught from
Level 1 through to Level 7. The resources that we have are
excellent: we're a Centre of Vocational Excellence in ICT. We also
have a wide breadth of options on offer to students, both in
Business and IT.
I thoroughly enjoy working in the College, especially the
interaction with the students. I enjoy seeing adult learners
returning to study and seeing the self belief they have at the end
of the course. It's a great opportunity for me to be able to
participate in developing people in my local community.