Fast-track to University course
During the mid 1980s, south east Londoner Alan Cain left school with little to shout about regarding his exam grades. It was London South East Colleges, Orpington (formerly Orpington College) that threw him a lifeline and enabled him to fast-track his way into university just a year later. And from there, Alan’s career journey has taken him to heights he didn’t dare dream of reaching.
Today, Alan works as a Resilience Manager for the NHS in Greater Manchester, responsible for what the NHS call ‘Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response’ (EPRR). His job includes planning for a wide range of emergency scenarios including severe weather, flooding, gas explosions, power supply outages, terrorism and pandemics. He is, like so many in the NHS, currently involved in the response to COVID-19.
Alan says:
“My career has taken me all over the world and I feel truly blessed to have got to where I am, particularly when I remember failing my exams at school. It almost stopped me in my tracks, but thanks to my dad for his advice ‘don’t let flunking school mean flunking the rest of your life’ and the wonderful tutors at the College I was given a second chance - an opportunity which I seized with both hands.
“What changed for me, was that unlike school I was at College by choice. There was a wider range of subjects available to study, meaning I could study things I was actually interested in. The tutors treated me as an adult rather than as a child, and instilled into me a proper work ethic. For the first time in my life I began to enjoy studying. All of a sudden I had vision and a purpose in life. In truth, I’ve never looked back.”
“The following year I began studying for a BSc in Psychology at the University of Hull and after graduating I worked in a number of different starter jobs in London until I began working for AIG as part of a team specialising in preventing the Y2K Millennium Bug from affecting their IT systems. In 2001 I moved from IT Disaster Recovery into security and emergency planning and found a career that I love. Since then I have taken every opportunity offered me and strived to become the best I can.”
