Returning to learning: mature students talk to Eoin Cunningham

A look at those returning to education

A look at those returning to education

Karinda Tolland

NUI Maynooth

I spent the last five years working in financial recruitment in Dublin and the five years previous to
that working in Sydney and London, in the same industry.

I'm in first year arts, but after that I change to single honours anthropology. From when I arrived in
Ireland I'd always planned to go back to Australia to college. I'd always wanted to study something that I had an interest in – as opposed to a subject I "should" study. My first degree was in law. Within three months I knew it wasn't something I wanted to do as a profession, but you soldier on and do
what's expected. Once I went out to meet and talk to the guys in Maynooth – this was about
two days before the cut-off point for applications – I knew I wanted to apply.

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It's taken me a while to get into the swing of it. You go through waves of loving college, then wondering if you've made the right choice. But the really nice thing about it all is there is such a big intake of mature students. I have friends who are 18 and 19 as well, but hanging out with people
who you might not meet in your workplace – that to me has been really interesting. It means everyone gets different outlooks on the experience

Charles Otengo

National College of Ireland

I'm studying for a Bachelor of Science in business information systems. I worked before, but had left
my job sometime back. When the recession started, getting a job became very difficult. The
best option was to go back to school to retrain myself so I will be ready when everything (in the economy) goes back to normal.

I was working in the computing industry, but was in the lower end of it, so I though in going back to
school I'd learn the proper skills so that progression would be possible. After being out of college for a long time, you worry about how it's going to be, so I had to talk to the programme director first. I asked him for a brief on what the course was like, so I could be ready for it. Then, when I actually started, things went smoothly for me.

I'm on top of the workload. It's hard to balance things between study and family. That can
difficult, but I'm managing it. I have a lot of ambition. My aspiration for the future is to finish the degree and, if possible, move on to a Master's in a computer discipline, so I'll be more
competitive than if I had only done the primary course.

Patrick Upton

Dublin City University

I originally did philosophy in college, culminating in a research Master’s between 1994 and 1996. Now I’m back, studying for an MA in translation studies in DCU. When I finished I decided not to become an academic. I worked in sales for a number of large corporations, then in translation and teaching English. I speak quite a few different languages and I said to myself: “a company can get rid of you in the space of an hour in the current climate, so it’s important to become future-proof.” I thought it was better to retrain than wake up at 45 and have it be too late.

It was very easy to go back. I don't have any formal qualifications in languages, so I had to sit a
test. It was painless – if the dynamic is there and you feel it's the right decision, it's simple.
It has been good, but challenging, insofar as you have only so much free time. I don't want to see the year go by and not use it productively. It has been a pleasant experience and a good thing to do. A good question to ask is: "why are you working?"

Sometimes a year out of formal employment can be a good thing to do for your life as an individual.

Ted Jones

University College Cork

I did my Leaving Cert in 1968 and started working for Macy's – the US department store group –
in their Irish office. I worked up from backroom boy to manager in 1980 and ran the office from then on, taking over the UK operation in the 1990s. In 1999, I resigned because my wife had terminal
cancer, so I took time out to care for her. After that, I was involved in another company for a number of years. It finished and I did nothing for a year.

I decided to go back because I had no formal training beyond the Leaving and wanted to change that. But I was also interested in new thinking and upskilling myself, so I'm doing a four-year Master's in commerce in UCC. It's my first year and I'm finding it excellent: it's adding to my
knowledge and it's also challenging.

They have a great mature students' office here, which made it easy. They deal with things that
may not have come up before, like study skills and the particular university way of doing things.
I discovered I had a problem I didn't realise until Christmas: I had a panic attack at the exam
stage, but I've been able to resolve what caused it and got a lot of assistance from
the college. The support staff are utterly behind students.