Tina chose to enrol with NEC in 2016 in order to gain the qualifications needed to access a career in teaching.

“I wanted to complete a level 6 diploma to gain entrance to university to become a primary teacher. However to become a teacher I needed a minimum of a science GCSE C grade so I enrolled with the NEC.”

Enrolling with NEC wasn’t Tina’s first foray into distance learning but she did not complete her previous course due to feeling unsupported and lacking a tutor. Searching for a new provider, she found our website easy to navigate and nicely laid out so dived into GCSE Combined Science.

“I figured if NEC took so much time to make things easy on the website that their courses would be easy to follow and navigate around! I also liked that I would have a tutor who would support me through the course.”

Being a busy mum, Tina appreciated the flexibility to study at her own pace and study in her own time in the evenings. 

“The course work was laid out perfectly and it was made very simple to plan and keep track of my studies.”

Tutors and high quality course materials are often instrumental in our students’ success. Tutor-marked assignments throughout NEC’s GCSE and A level courses give students a chance to have their work checked and are given an opportunity to learn from assignment feedback.

“If I didn’t understand something I could always contact the tutor and if the tutor didn’t think I had grasped a concept on my assessments they would give me feedback and I could go off and research some things independently. Having a tutor was very useful for making sure I was on the correct path in my studying.”

Due to NEC’s status as a registered exam centre, Tina found booking an exam was less stressful than she first imagined:

“Booking my examination for an NEC test centre was a worrying time but I shouldn’t have been worried because the administration staff booked it for me through their partner test centres. I paid and got a date. No fuss ringing around test centres at all.”

We are delighted that Tina enjoyed her course, so much so that her teenage son has now enrolled on our GCSE Astronomy and GCSE Psychology courses. Tina has home educated Michael for 5 years now and was inspired to return to our courses as she felt that “he would find working through his GCSEs with NEC as easy as [she] did”.

When asked if she would enrol on another course for herself in the future, Tina replied:

“Yes I really would and probably will in the future. My son who is studying with the NEC at the minute plans to take more GCSEs so by the time he reaches 16 he would have completed 9 GCSEs with NEC.”

Her advice to students looking to enrol with NEC? 

“It will be the best thing you ever did! All I would say is make a plan on what units you plan to study and when.”

This sentiment was echoed by Michael as he said he is “fully happy” and will continue his studies with NEC for the years to come.

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If, like Tina, you would like to pursue a career in teaching, check out our free Career Tracks guide to teaching here: https://www.nec.ac.uk/career-tracks/

If you are a parent looking to home educate one or more children, you can visit our Home Educators page or call our Student Recruitment Team on 0800 389 2839.