Former student - now entrepreneur - returns to College as 'Super-Governor'

: Created: 16 December 2019

At 16, Mark had lots of good ideas but not a clue how or where to get started on a suitable career path. On leaving school, he hadn’t scored high enough in his GCSEs to progress to sixth form and in his own words he ‘lacked aspiration and endeavour’. It was his mother who eventually convinced him to join a course at his local FE college to at least ‘do something’ while deciding what he wanted to be. Entering the building on Rookery Lane on that day back in 1990 proved to kindle an amazing turnaround of fortunes and the beginning of a thrilling career odyssey.

“I came to the College because I didn’t want to get left behind,” says Mark.“My friends all seemed to have a career plan and were destined for university but I simply didn’t fancy it. It just didn’t appeal to me at the time. That was to all change however.

“I enrolled on a Level 3 Business course and immediately found myself enjoying it immensely. The knowledge I gained from this course came in useful later on in my career but at the time it acted more as a springboard to go on and do bigger and better things. What it did most of all was to give me confidence and much higher expectations of myself. After completing the course with a merit grade, I got lucky with a short work experience programme at the BBC and they asked me to stay on and perform a number of different tasks which then led to me reading hourly traffic reports live on BBC Radio Kent. I stayed there for two years before applying for a foundation degree in electrical engineering at London South Bank University.

“Without possessing the formal A Level entry criteria, it meant spending a year on the foundation level before embracing the full Engineering degree - something I did with great zeal. This course turned me into the computer geek I am today and paved the way to many new openings. Firstly, as part of my final year project I worked on pioneering animated X-rays - cineangiograms of the left ventricular margin of the heart and this, in turn, led to me being accepted on a fast-track graduation scheme with BAE Systems. Here, I worked in a team writing flight control software for the infamous RAF Eurofighter Typhoon.

“Around the same time, I was harbouring a strong desire to become an actor and I made the decision to change career. I went to drama school and trained to be a professional actor at DSL (Drama Studio London) and then set about auditioning for roles on the stage, tv and film. I found work with the Original Shakespeare Co performing at the Globe Theatre in London. Also I performed in productions such as Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Comedy of Errors” and a handful of films.

“It was during my time working as an actor and finding work would come in very sporadically, that I enquired about teaching work at my old college - I was invited in to cover classes during teacher absentee. This worked for a time until I was tempted to take the role of IT teaching full-time.

“It was at the College, working as a course manager that I hit upon the idea of developing a computer programme to track my students’ progress on-course and to enable other teachers to accurately perform important record-keeping tasks. This was the birth of eTrackr, an individual learning plan (ILP) system that brings together a student’s course information into one central hub and provides a one-stop-shop for tracking, monitoring, measuring and analysing performance throughout their course”.

“To cut a long story short, eTrackr, along with other products such as eSpirALS, eNotify and eConsole is now my main business and I’m happy to say that over 80 colleges and college groups throughout the UK now use our e-tracking services. I run a very successful company employing 20 people and we are planning some exciting new products for the FE education sector soon.

“Recently, London South East Colleges invited me back to become a member of their corporation and I accepted the invitation with great affection and enthusiasm, and I am very honoured to Chair the Curriculum & Standards Committee as well as a Governor on the London & South East Education Group Board. I owe this College so much and I am a keen supporter of its aims, objectives and particularly its forward-thinking ethos.

“I want to help the College become even more successful and to enable it to grow, broaden its offer and become more relevant to its local community and economy. It worked miracles for me - got me out of a hole and set me on my path to becoming a successful engineer, actor and entrepreneur. This is what drives me now; I want everybody to experience what I have and be inspired to achieve as highly as possible. As a local employer, I can be influential in attracting new stakeholders - particularly in the field of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and a sector that will prove essential to our future economic growth, social enterprise and employment opportunity.”

London South East Colleges has campuses across Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich. It provides vocational education and training, apprenticeships and traineeships, professional courses and degree programmes. The College is a member of the London and South East Education Group consisting of two academy trusts providing both alternative and mainstream secondary provision throughout Bromley and Bexley. Recently, London South East Colleges has been named as a winner of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its pioneering provision of high quality technical and vocational education. Please click here to read more.