"I asked myself what I should do next."

CLARE SYMONS, LEVEL 5 BSc MEDICAL BIOLOGY 

“I’d never done anything science based, but I’d had my children and asked myself what I should do next,” says Level 5 Medical Biology student Clare Symons, who is now on track for a career in pathology. 

Clare had previously worked as a personal trainer before choosing a Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology course at Burnley College. 

“I was in a position to assess what I did next,” she says. “I knew I wanted to go into the biomedical field but questioned how. Do I go back to work? Do I go back into education? I thought, because of the children, I couldn’t travel very far. So this course at Burnley College was the perfect solution for me.”

Clare praised the student-to-tutor ratio on her course, saying: “It didn’t feel quite as daunting as what a university would because they’re quite big class sizes, so it’s easier to get support from tutors here.”

The close support from tutors creates an environment for shared knowledge. “Our tutors are industry experts, they’ve helped advise us about the careers the course could lead to from their personal experience,” she adds.

Clare says she has come a long way with a lot of her skills and knowledge since joining this course. “We’re always encouraged to look at what’s new, what’s going on, what’s the breaking news in medical, what’s reliable, and so on,” she says. 

She is now looking forward to working towards a career in pathology, saying: “Science has the potential to find cures for diseases, which I think is fantastic. This course has given me quite a broad range of options for going forward.”