Distance learning - OU

Both the Royal Navy and the Open University have played a big part in Jim Tomlinson’s life.

Some ‘miserable’ CSE scores in school and prompted him to join the RN aged 16 with no qualifications. The Navy helped him to get GCSEs and more: ‘Welfare, discipline and report writing were common aspects of work, but it was during this period that my interpersonal skills were developed, enabling me to get on with people and function as part of a team. As a result, my confidence rose considerably enabling me to improve myself academically, professionally and personally. This period of my career is best regarded as forming the necessary and vitally important building blocks of my skills.’

The Navy agreed and put him forward for a commission in 1992. It was the springboard to start a BA in Humanities course with the OU in 1995. Directing staff at the Royal Navy College Greenwich provided encouragement and an educational grant, but the rest was up to him. What happened in the seven years of his degree he says: ‘Gave me a massive boost in confidence, and developed my writing and analytical skills. It was during my course work that I decided I wanted to be a teacher.

‘OU courses are very attractive to the Services,’ Tomlinson adds, ‘because you can pick it up and do it anywhere. It gives you the flexibility that coincides with the military.’

In 2002 he added a First Class Honours degree in Humanities with Classical Studies to his accomplishments.

His 28 years in the Navy included spells as a radar plotter, an intelligence analyst, divisional officer at HMS Raleigh responsible for training new recruits in seamanship and the Training Group Officer at Lead Naval Military Training School. He has been to 150 places in 33 countries. He has had all the demands of a career and family (wife and three sons, one of whom attends a special needs school, and a daughter), and now he has settled in to achieving another goal.

In September 2003, Tomlinson resigned his commission as a Lieutenant and began life as a student again. He is now doing his work experience as a trainee teacher in a primary school as part of a year-long course at the Rolle School of Education, part of Plymouth University.

By next summer, he will be a qualified primary school teacher.