(MA in teaching and learning, SETU)
My route into education was anything but conventional. After school I did a two-year PLC diploma in physical education, then went straight into the workforce – a stint in the military, a few months loading trucks, and, within a few years, I was operations manager for TNT Ireland. No undergraduate degree, but plenty of hard-won experience.
From there I moved into aviation, starting with an air ambulance, then ASL Airlines, where I spent 12 years. By year nine, I was delivering instruction in aviation security, and it was through that work that I first encountered South East Technological University (SETU), then IT Carlow. A remarkable woman there, Anne Meaney, spotted me lecturing and introduced me to something that would change everything: recognition of prior learning (RPL).
The principle is straightforward – your professional experience can count towards a qualification. Because of my background in aviation operations and the corporate world, I was able to gain advanced entry into an honours degree in aviation management, gaining exemptions from modules where I could genuinely demonstrate competence.
READ MORE
I had to be brutally honest with myself: I knew flight planning and crew rostering inside out, but aircraft leasing was a different matter. I only applied for exemptions I could stand over. In the end, I completed the four-year degree in two years, part-time, finishing with first class honours.
The degree changed things immediately. Within a month of adding it to my profile, I was offered several positions. But beyond the career opportunities, I learned a huge amount about myself, including new ways of thinking. I identified knowledge gaps I hadn’t known I had, and the value of sitting in a room with people from aviation engineering, finance, leasing and law.
Now I am back at SETU, this time for a postgraduate qualification in teaching and learning. I have always had a knack for instruction – it goes back to the military, even the scouts – and lecturing is the direction I want to go. I had approached SETU about this path five or six years ago and was told I needed the level eight qualification first. Now I have it, and I am doing the full postgraduate experience. There is no RPL that I would qualify for this time, as I have not yet been lecturing long enough to qualify. I am currently an associate lecturer at SETU as a subject matter expert, which is a role the degree made possible.
Juggling it all requires honesty with your employer, your family and yourself. I was 48 when I started my undergraduate degree. I had to have conversations at home: I would be disappearing to study for two or three hours in the evenings. ASL Airlines were hugely supportive, as they have been for others who followed a similar path.
Aviation never sleeps. I have lectured online to people in Hong Kong in the small hours – but that same flexibility is what makes this kind of study possible. I came into this without a traditional academic background, and RPL gave me a door I didn’t know existed. The postgraduate is the next step on a journey I am only getting started on.
In the meantime, I am in the embryonic phase of developing my own company, called Zenavia, to cater for all aviation (and more) courses required by the various aviation authorities and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency – from compliance auditing and human factors in aviation to fatigue risk management. So it is an exciting time both personally and professionally.
