Education, education...

I graduated from Worcester College of Higher Education back in 1985 with a 2nd Class Honours degree in History and English. It was a fun-filled and informative three years including a semester on exchange at Trenton State College in the USA. I also hold a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from University College Worcester (1997) and a Post Graduate Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring from the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth (2015)

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School report

I had a great time training to be a teacher and couldn't quite believe it when I landed my first post teaching History and English to secondary school children. Twenty five years later and I've just finished marking my final set of exercise books and written my last set of reports. I even had a job training new teachers for a while!

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Other jobs I have done over the years...

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Postman Rob

No black and white cat, but being a postie was one of my favourite jobs. I enjoyed being outdoors and all that cycling kept me fit. And my afternoons were free! Yes, it did have its downsides too; snarly dogs and those early morning alarms could be a killer but I hung on in there.

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Thresher! 'Would you like a carrier bag with that Sir?'

I worked for the well known off-licence chain as a trainee manager. Ian, my first boss, was a great mentor and taught me the business from the bottom up (excuse the pun). He was a mad Watford fan so, needless to say, I got to run the store on Saturday afternoons. I even met John Craven once when he popped in for a can of 7-Up. Thanks to Ian's tutorage I made it to branch manager.

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Every little helps!

I hung up my wine merchant's apron and moved into the world of supermarkets. Gateway isn't around anymore; I think the Co-op swallowed them up. They trained me up to be a store manager. I learned everything from boning out chump chops to prepping cauliflowers for the greengrocery display. Later I moved to Tesco and worked on their new store opening team and trained quite a few new starters. They say that we British are a nation of shopkeepers and who was I to buck the trend? My future in food retail seemed set. But one never knows what's round the next corner, or should that be corner-shop?