A Tees Valley learner has fulfilled her ambition of furthering her career by going on to study at university with the help of a local college.

Lisa Wood, aged 36 from Brotton, has worked as a dental nurse in the region for 18 years, but has always harboured ambitions to train to be a dental hygienist/therapist.

“I absolutely love my job as a dental nurse and have been doing it all of my life, but after a while I wanted a new challenge. I knew that I wanted to stay working in dentistry and the next step up for someone like me would be to train as a dental hygienist/therapist.” she said

Until recently, the degrees that would have enabled Lisa to do this were only offered at locations further afield, like Newcastle and Leeds, and with a young family to look after these just weren’t an option.

So, when Teesside University announced that it was opening a new state-of-the-art dental school offering a suitable course, Lisa decided that it was now or never and set about preparing to apply for a place on the BSC Dental Hygiene and Therapy course.

With competition for places likely to be tough, Lisa needed to be sure first of all that she met the stringent entry requirements for the course – and that’s where Redcar & Cleveland College came in to help.

Having looked at the other similar courses, Lisa knew that in order to be considered she would need at least three grade B A-Levels, or alternatively she could study an Access to Higher Education course that would give her a relevant qualification.

With the degree course at Teesside set to start in September 2010, Lisa enrolled on the Access to Health course at Redcar & Cleveland College last year. The course is aimed at preparing students for going on to study health-based courses at university.

Course tutor Angela Ince said: “The Access courses that the college offers not only cover units that are relevant to the study students are expecting to go on and undertake at university, but they also aim to prepare them for the kinds of challenges that they will come up against at university.

“Many of our students haven’t gone through any kind of formal academic training before and going straight to university would be a daunting challenge for them. So, as well as studying units such as Anatomy & Physiology and Health Promotion, we also study units that teach them how to write academically and reference correctly.”

After sending off her application and attending an interview, Lisa was thrilled to hear that she had been accepted for one of 12 places on the course from over 170 applicants.

Principal of Redcar & Cleveland College Gary Groom praised Lisa’s drive and her achievements so far. “Lisa is a shining example of what can be achieved by a person when they set their mind to it and is proof that it’s never too late to take that big step and fulfil your ambitions,” he said

“We’re sure that Lisa will go on to achieve great things in her degree course, and with our new Higher Education Centre opening at the college this September, we hope to see more students like her coming through the doors and going on to bigger and better things.”