Castlederg student is a finalist at the ‘Learner of the Year’ awards

A Castelderg student, who was forced to switch careers after suffering an accident in which he lost four fingers, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Open College Network ‘Learner of the Year Award’.

Passionate about helping others, Adrian Boyd is now progressing to train as a counsellor after completing ‘Essential Skills’ qualifications in Maths and Communications, as part of the North West Regional College’s ‘Community Education’ curriculum.

Despite finishing school with no qualifications, and having to leave his job as a manual labourer due to injury, Adrian explained how he turned his life around after falling in love with education.

“Even though I left school with no qualifications at all, I have always worked,” Adrian said. “However, I was repairing a roof one day, and ended up losing four of my fingers.

“This left me unable to do the job I was previously doing.

“However,” he added. “I happened to see ‘Strabane Community Unemployment Group’ advertising college courses offered by NWRC on social media, and I decided to give education another go.

“I studied the Maths ‘Essential Skills’ course first, and I was very good at it.

“I, then, moved on to studying Communications, which I really enjoyed.”

Fast-forward to today, and Adrian has now completed NWRC’s Level 2 course in Counselling, and he will soon be progressing to Level 3 Counselling in Strand Road Campus, Derry.

The course is part-time over 32 weeks, and Adrian, who once worked on the pager crew with Foyle Search and Rescue, now has aspirations of becoming a full-time counsellor.

“My time formerly working on the pager crew has given me lots of empathy, and I have developed good listening skills,” he said. “I think everything that has happened in my life has been pointing me to a new career in counselling.”

Throughout his time studying at NWRC, Adrian said he always felt comfortable, and had great support from the tutors.

“It’s very humbling to be nominated for this award by my tutor, Ruairi McFaul,” Adrian added. “I’m looking forward to going to the awards ceremony on June 26, and I hope I do the college proud.”

‘Helping others’

Adrian’s tutor Ruairi McFaul said that the Castlederg man’s previous employment and voluntary work demonstrated how much of his life has been ‘centred around helping others’.

“His Essential Skills qualifications have allowed him to now progress to a higher course, and I have no doubt that he will continue helping people in the future,” Ruairi said.

“I hope other people read Adrian’s story, and feel inspired to continue with their education.

“We wish him all the best at the finals, but he is already a winner in our eyes.”

l NWRC course information is now available to view online at www.nwrc.ac.uk/parttime, providing details of the hundreds of part-time courses on offer at the College’s Strabane, Derry~Londonderry, Springtown, Greystone and Limavady campuses.