Starting career number 3 at 61

The grandfather of two from Bitterne Park has just left college and is embarking on his third career.

After 14 years working in a shipyard and almost 30 as a driver, Colin is launching his own business as a ceramic artist.

Colin loved his work as a delivery driver, but an accident five years ago caused severe damage to his knee and forced him to find a new job.

Having been in employment all his life since he was 16, Colin found it tough being unemployed.

“I found it horrendous having to go to the job centre,” he says.

“I was looking for anything I could do.

I found it hard being out of work. You’re used to going out and doing something you enjoy and then it’s all gone.

“I was unemployed for two years – I didn’t get any work at all.”

Colin says he realised he was ‘getting nowhere fast’ and decided it was time for a change of direction.

He had already retrained once, to become an HGV driver, and he knew he could do it again.

He had been doing an art and design evening course at Southampton’s City College for fun when his tutor suggested he might like to do a foundation course in the subject.

“I thought about it for a while,”

says Colin. “Then I thought ‘I’m getting nowhere fast doing anything else, so I’ll do it’.”

Colin started his foundation course at City College in 2011.

In his late 50s, he found himself surrounded by students 40 years his junior, but says that this didn’t cause him any problems as he is used to working with younger people.

“At first it was strange being back in education – especially doing essays and presentations,” he says.

“I was a bit nervous, but we had such a good group that it was easy in the end.”

After completing his foundation course, Colin went on to do an HNC, focusing on ceramics.

He is now in the first stages of setting up his own ceramics business from home and hopes to sell his creations at craft fares.

Some people might think it’s daunting to embark on education and a new career later in life, but Colin says that being older has given him the freedom to try something new.

Going back to college would have been too much of a gamble and extremely financially difficult when his two children were still living at home.

“I realised I wanted to do this, to work for myself and get out and start making things and selling them.

“I really like doing something creative,” he adds.

“It’s a great feeling to be doing something you like and hopefully you’ll get paid for it.

It has woken up bits of my brain I hadn’t been using. You don’t just look at things anymore; you analyse. You look at the shape and think ‘how did they make that?’.”

• To contact Colin about his artwork, call 023 8055 2469.
• City College offers a wealth of art and design courses for school leavers and adults, ranging from ‘learning for fun’ short courses such as felt making and life drawing and photography to full-time HNDs, which are the equivalent of university level study. Learner success rates at City college are classed as ‘outstanding’ and the college is listed as ‘good’ by Ofsted, with some outstanding features.

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