Distance learning

Nic Cole

A severe shortage of interesting job opportunities in 1974 – he was too old to train as an accountant and he turned down the invitation to be an engineering store man – led 20-year-old Nic Cole to join the Army. Although he was never to realise his dream of becoming a helicopter pilot, he enjoyed his work in the Intelligence Corps so much that he left as a Staff Sergeant some 22 years later. The job took him to north-west Europe, including a tour in Belgium, and on two tours in Belize. He also served on Operation Granby with the 7th Armoured Brigade and, in 1996, began work with the Civil Service as an imagery analyst.

‘I left school at 17 and a half with eight O-levels,’ he says. ‘I was one of only two students in my year to get that many O-levels but working in a factory really didn’t appeal to me. I started studying with the Open University before I left the Army with the idea of getting a degree before I left to give me more choices. The military is very good at giving support to OU students both financially and with time off, and has just introduced a Learning Credit scheme to help people in the Forces gain additional qualifications.’

He started his OU study in 1993 and, with a year out, graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science honours degree in Natural Sciences. Studying mainly at home in the evenings and at weekends, and occasionally on exercise, his studies also helped with historical research for his hobby – taking part in American Civil War re-enactments.

With two daughters at university and another studying for her A-levels, Cole is delighted that they are taking higher education: ‘I do feel I missed out, and I think I would have had more career opportunities if I had got a degree earlier, and people did seem to progress ahead of me. However, my OU studies have had an incredible effect on my children and I do feel I have encouraged them to study.’ In turn, he is now studying for a master’s degree.

As well as benefiting his day job, Cole has found his degree ‘a great stress-buster! The OU has been so accommodating. I had paid for and was accepted on to a course but then deployed on an operation. I was told that I could take up the place a year later and they held it for me.’