Jackie Thompson

Achieving an HND in Social Sciences is something that Jackie Thompson would not have believed a few years ago. After being away from education since training as a nurse over thirty years ago, returning to study was a daunting prospect. 

Jackie, who is originally from Northern Ireland, explained, “I gave up work when we moved to Scotland with my husband’s job. We settled in Stonehaven but had no family support here, so my focus was on raising our two daughters. They both left to go to university but when the pandemic brought them home and we’d sit chatting as a family, I found that I was unable to relate to their new environment and the ever-changing world.

Engaged and enjoying their own learning experiences, my daughters encouraged me to think about doing something for myself and perhaps studying again. When browsing the NESCol website, the HND Social Sciences course jumped out at me. It appealed because of the varied range of subjects, and I’ve always been interested in psychology since my nursing days. “

Jackie found her return to study difficult at first, she wasn’t confident using technology and it took her a bit of time to find her feet. She did well in her units over the first year but still had some self-doubt over continuing. Her lecturers convinced her to return, reassuring her that she was doing well, and she was glad that they did.

She explained, “It felt like everything fell into place for me in the second year, things just clicked, and my understanding was on a different level. I felt confident to question things and consider political issues for example, in a new way.

I met a lot of lovely people on the course, some were adult returners like me, but I also got on well with a lot of the younger students and we had some excellent discussions and debates. It was great to be able to bounce ideas off each other and share opinions. “

Achieving her HND with A passes for her graded units, Jackie felt she had opened the box to learning and couldn’t close it again! She has used her qualification to progress to the University of Aberdeen and embarks on an MA (Hons) in Politics and Sociology, opting to enter second year.  

She said, “I’m grateful to my daughters and husband for encouraging and supporting me over the last couple of years, and to the excellent lecturing team and my classmates at NESCol for the brilliant experience that I had there.

I feel so much more confident in myself and now consider the world in a completely different way. I’m so glad that I decided to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself and would encourage anyone thinking about giving learning a second chance to just go for it. “