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The founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, once said “we focus on hiring people with transferable skills – team players who can pitch in and help others in all sorts of situations.”

Someone who has demonstrated the importance of transferable skills is Lauren Richards, former Worcester College of Technology (Worcester Tech) student who started her journey studying sport and through the development and application of transferrable skills, is now teaching biology. But how did she get here?

After hating school and the school environment, Lauren knew college was the best choice for her and decided to join Worcester Tech to study Sports Coaching, Development and Fitness. During her time at Worcester Tech, Lauren not only successfully earned her qualification, but she also gained communication, listening, practical sports and writing skills and was also able to link her love for dance to her college course.

So, where is Lauren now?

After finishing at college, Lauren progressed onto university and studied Sports and Dance at the University of Worcester where she gained a 2:1.

Lauren is now working as a secondary school biology Teacher, after finishing university she went into teaching through the TES Straight to Teaching course. She then taught for five terms and had her final assessment where she was awarded QTS in January 2021. She then completed her NQT year, where she went on maternity halfway through to have her son, and then finally completed in March 2023.

Although this wasn’t the exact subject studied at college, Lauren was able to take the transferable skills she had gained into other careers, for example content knowledge. Learning such broad content has meant Lauren can use the skills gained during college to teach biology rather than sport. As well as this, Lauren is also a dance teacher for a private dance school in Redditch called Lucy Jane’s School of Dance.

When discussing her time at college, Lauren said:

“I hated school. I knew I wanted to continue with education, but not in a school/sixth form setting. I wanted to be treated like an adult. Worcester College of Technology allowed me to do that. They treated us like adults, and we took responsibility of our time management and assessments, and it was down to what we put into our learning, to what we got out of our time at college.

I have a background in dance and was able to link my college course to my dance background. I loved the relaxed atmosphere and that we could do what we wanted in our frees, and not be confined to a school all day like I would have been in sixth form. I absolutely loved college. I always say, if there was a time I could go back to, it would be college.”

And there you have it, the importance of transferable skills. Although Lauren didn’t specialise in teaching biology her transferable skills and the knowledge gained during college and university allowed her to progress in an alternative job role and pass on her knowledge to the next generation.