University Beckons Tanya after SERC Support gets her Through a Challenging Year

When Tanya Watson, from Dunmurry, enrolled on a higher education course at SERC, she was determined to focus on developing her future career. This determination meant that when she faced family issues and health problems, she continued with her studies, and she says the support of SERC staff helped her to achieve her aims.  

Tanya left school after GCSEs, wanting better options than the A-levels on offer, and studied sport, first at Belfast Met and later in Lancashire. Learning was put on hold when family life intervened, and Tanya came back to Northern Ireland and was employed in youth work, determined to make a difference in her community. She says,  

“I realised there was a lack of facilities and activities for the Lagmore area, so I started up the Lagmore Youth Project.  We were a small team, and we started out by getting two shipping containers, and we are still based there, working with 280 young people a week. This turned into a paid job, and I also took advantage of every opportunity to gain relevant training and qualifications.  

"However, I always knew I wanted to do more in terms of work and study, and a friend had studied nursing at SERC in a year and is now about to finish at Queen’s University, so I realised I could do something similar. I came to an open day and met a tutor who encouraged me to aim high and apply for the part-time HNC in Social and Community Work in SERC Newtownards Campus. So I applied, interviewed and enrolled!” 

As her course comes to an end, Tanya says the time has flown by, but adds that it hasn’t all been plain sailing:  

“The first year was a breeze…then I fell pregnant with my third child, and it was a difficult pregnancy. So in the second year, from December I was in and out of hospital.  The baby was induced early, the delivery was quite traumatic, and my daughter Amelia was in neonatal intensive care for five days at the beginning and was later back in hospital again. She still needs more tests and she is tiny for her age, but she is growing now and she’s a happy, settled baby.  

“While this was going on my son, who is eight, was being assessed and then diagnosed with ASD and ADHD – he is now getting support and he's doing well at school.” 

Alongside all this, Tanya continued to volunteer with the Lagmore Youth Project.  

“As I am forty, I feel I have to get on with it and get on the career path – a birth isn’t going to stop me!” she says, “And the support I have had at SERC has been amazing, better than anything I have seen elsewhere. Any issue that arose, I could message my tutor, Jenni Rice, and straight away, we would be looking at solutions and adjustments to keep me on track. That was the start, and now we are finishing, and I have four offers of a university place, so my plan is to start a Bachelor of Social Work Degree at Queen’s University Belfast in September.” 

Tanya adds that the course itself, as well as the challenges she was facing, taught her a lot about resilience:  

“Understanding human behaviour was fascinating and was more in-depth than anything I had done before. As much as it’s a learning journey academically, you also learn a lot about yourself. Social work is like that – you find out how resilient you are, how quick you are at responding to problems, and I am certain it’s the route I want to go down. I’ve mentioned Jenni Rice - she is an inspiration - but in fact all the tutors have been great. Two years go so quickly, and I would say to anyone interested in the course: go ahead, grab the opportunity. Here I am now, looking forward to my next steps, and to the SERC graduation in September!” 

If you're exploring your options after A-Levels, SERC provides higher education qualifications including foundation degrees and degrees. We run courses validated by Liverpool John Moores University, The Open University, Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University. You can also study for a Higher National Certificate or a Higher National Diploma or follow the Higher-Level Apprenticeship route.  Higher Education enrolment days are on Thursday 14 August, 9am-5pm and Friday 15 August, 9am-3pm at our Bangor, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Newtownards Campuses.