I didn’t go to uni

As hundreds of scholars throughout the UK open their examination outcomes, many are preparing for the subsequent massive step: college.

However that path is not for everybody – and it does not need to be.

BBC Information spoke to 4 former pupils who selected a distinct route and nonetheless landed their dream jobs.

From working with animals at Chester Zoo to photographing Harry Kinds on tour, their tales present that skipping college does not imply lacking out on success.

When 29-year-old Lloyd Wakefield was rising up in Stockport, he did not think about his future behind a digital camera, and positively not on tour with one of many greatest pop stars on the earth.

“Up till school, my solely purpose was to be a footballer,” he says.

“I am not essentially the most educational. I did not click on with any classes outdoors of PE. I am a hands-on individual.”

When soccer did not work out, he took a job at Aldi.

“It took me two years to regulate, to seek out any sort of path or objective outdoors of soccer,” he says.

He “caught a bug” for pictures by a good friend’s movie digital camera, spending their days off going out and taking photographs collectively.

Instructing himself by YouTube and many trial and error, Lloyd started messaging companies and chasing alternatives. That led him to a backstage gig at Style Week, and ultimately to photographing Harry Kinds’ Love On Tour.

“In the event you instructed me after I was working in Aldi that I would be within the music world, on a tour, it was so polar reverse of the place I assumed I used to be going to be.”

His work at Love On Tour landed him the title of favorite tour photographer on the 2023 iHeartRadio Awards. He has additionally labored with different celebrities and types similar to Dua Lipa, EA, UFC and Arsenal FC.

Immediately, Lloyd runs Lloyd’s Workshop, a inventive group for younger photographers with out connections or formal coaching.

His recommendation for different younger creatives is to take their time.

“There is not any disgrace in getting a standard job,” he says.

“Use it to fund your ardour. Do not rush it.”

Trying again, he says selecting to not go to school was the proper name for him.

“I discovered far more by simply sort of placing myself in these conditions on set. The advantages vastly outweigh the negatives.”

Frazer Walsh’s journey to working with lions did not start in a lab or lecture corridor – it began with a job advert he noticed by probability.

“I utilized for 3 completely different universities however I did not need to go – it was simply because I felt I had no different possibility,” he says.

“Then I noticed a Chester zookeeping apprenticeship listed and thought: ‘Oh my god, that is my dream, it is one thing I’ve all the time wished to do.'”

The 21-year-old, from Widnes in Cheshire, was “obsessed” with animals from a younger age, he says, driving his mum “insane” together with his love of David Attenborough.

However he had no thought the way to flip that right into a profession.

“You do not actually hear of many zookeepers, or in case you do, you do not actually understand how they received into that place within the first place,” he says.

Now a certified keeper, Frazer is flourishing.

“A couple of yr into the apprenticeship, I used to be lastly in a position to work with the lions on my own. They’re your duty then, you are taking care of them, and you’re taking a whole lot of delight in it.

“That’s one thing that I will all the time maintain with me.”

Frazer’s recommendation to high school leavers is much like Lloyd’s.

“Simply do not rush it, as a result of it is your life, is not it?” he says.

“A job like that is actually as soon as in a lifetime, so simply go for it.”

For south Londoner Thaliqua Smith, film-making was all the time the dream, however going to school to get there simply did not really feel proper.

“I simply felt like faculty needs to be finished,” she says.

“They have been saying the one method for me to get into [directing and producing] was to go and do additional research. Nevertheless it simply wasn’t one thing that I used to be notably involved in.”

After her dad instructed she look into an apprenticeship, Thaliqua discovered the Channel 4 manufacturing coaching scheme.

“It simply sounded actually cool,” she says.

“I assumed, ‘Wow, that is nice. I am working, I am studying for a yr. I am incomes cash for a yr in a discipline that might be wonderful.'”

Thaliqua was one in all simply 10 individuals chosen for the primary yr of the scheme. From day one, she says she knew she was in the proper place.

Now 25, she’s labored on exhibits like The Apprentice, Bare Attraction, and Wealthy Flavours with Massive Zuu and AJ Tracey. She’s filmed overseas in Spain and New York and has moved as much as the position of assistant producer.

“I did not journey a lot as a child, so to be flown to wonderful locations, staying in stunning accommodations, assembly insanely cool individuals – it is a dream come true.”

Now she says she’s enthusiastic about spreading the phrase.

“Apprenticeships are wonderful, [but] I needed to dig by Google to seek out mine. They need to be promoted far more.”

Her recommendation is to “not let anybody persuade you you may’t do one thing”.

“It is OK to not have all of it found out,” she says.

“Even individuals who act like they have it found out most likely do not.”

Faye Husband’s faculty years have been removed from typical.

Recognized with persistent fatigue syndrome, in addition to Pots – a situation which causes dizziness – and hypermobility, she struggled with attendance and nervousness.

“I had a whole lot of break day and it was arduous managing being off after which coming again to high school and lecturers and associates not understanding,” the 19-year-old says.

She ultimately left mainstream faculty and was homeschooled earlier than becoming a member of a help unit known as Attempt.

“That actually gave me my GCSEs – I most likely would not have managed them if I wasn’t there,” she says.

After going to varsity and incomes A-levels in criminology and psychology, Faye nonetheless wasn’t certain about college. That is when her mother and father instructed turning a interest right into a profession.

“I would finished my very own nails for years and my mum and pa mentioned, ‘Why do not you do a course and do it for different individuals?'”

Working from a transformed storage at residence in Redcar, she now runs her enterprise Phaze Nails which is usually booked as much as a month prematurely.

Being self-employed has given Faye the room to thrive regardless of her well being struggles.

“I’ve met so many good individuals and made actually sturdy friendships from it,” she says.

“That is normally stuff I do not get the chance to do, as a result of I do not exit so much.”

Faye says younger individuals shouldn’t put an excessive amount of strain on themselves.

“Be type to your self,” she says.

“Do not rush your self into doing one thing that you simply’re not able to do.”