You guys have a totally different educational background to me. Born in the front bedroom of one of Birminghams Back to Back houses, ending up going to a Cadburys funded boarding school because of Asthma when I was eight and at aged 12 moved to a Secondary Modern. Was already getting close to 6 foot tall and because of long walks at boarding school every day was so fit made the football team for the under 15s in the first week at school aged 12. From that moment on school was a delight nothing to do with academic studies it was all about sport as one teacher said ‘you have zero talent as a footballer but you are big enough and daft enough to kick anybody so you’re in the team’. I loved it.
Left school at 15 because the family needed the money and my mother secured me a job filling shelves in a supermarket and I hated every day. Got my apprenticeship off my own back by walking in and asking as you could back in those days and after 5 years at Tech College day release qualifying worked at a couple of BL Main Dealers before starting work for British Leyland at the Midland service centre. From there via Jaguar experimental I moved into training in 1977 and worked in that field until I retired.
Along the way and to the amazement of everyone in the family I managed to get a training and development degree at Wolverhampton University in my early 30s.
The biggest hurdle to early education failings is my dreadful spelling and use of grammar but I can screw a nut on a bolt and that gave me a living and gave me worldwide travel whilst working at Volvo cars so not too shabby 🤣.
BR
Colin
Colin,
Not so unusual back then for inner city/metropolitan kids. One of my school friends had to leave at 13 in 1968, his father a coal miner died quite young from 'black lung' and his family needed the money. Fortunately back then one could find a decent job simply walking in off the street and he landed a Instrument technician apprenticeship at the local steel works. But move the story on a decade or so and nearly everything was gone.
