I go back a bit in terms of years and educational hurdles and so left Junior School in 1955 when the 11 plus exam reigned supreme. Because of my birthday falling in the gap between academic years I was able to take the 11 plus twice. Why twice, well I failed it the first time and, having the quirky opportunity to take it again, I did. Unfortunately I failed it again. This meant the difference between going to a Grammar School or a Secondary Modern. Now my mother was horrified, she believed rightly or wrongly that the local secondary modern schools were not the sort of places she wanted her son to go to, I am not sure whether dad went along with this view or not, but on this topic what mum wanted was the default setting. So they looked at their finances and despite being on a very tight budget they could just about afford to send me to a fee paying college some 5 miles away. It was an odd place as it was one of Pitman's Colleges, that mainly ran commercial courses such as typing and shorthand, but had branched out to run what they called a grammar school course. But the course was very minimal in terms of the subjects it covered as there was no arts or science subjects of any sort. It was intended to get you to GCE level and take the exams in the limited number of subjects you might have the chance of passing.
Towards the end of my time there I was gradually put in for an "O" Level GCE exam or two at a time and got pass marks, just, in English, English Literature, History, Geography and Maths. Not much of an achievement although a great struggle for me, and pathetic by today's standards. By now I had decided I wanted to become an Architect. Why is an open to question as it was just an ambition and hardly based on the subjects I had studied or what I had taken exams in. But despite that I pursued the ambition, went to Art School for two years to boost that side of my skills and knowledge, and studied at night-school to take "A" levels in Maths and Geography. I failed completely to get "A" Levels in either subject though I tried many times at maths, failing each time by just a few marks. I should have been discouraged but doggedness kept pushing me on. I did get an "A" level in Art but the conventional entrance requirements to Architectural College at the time were two "A" levels and those to be Maths and Art.
Despite this falling short of the basic requirements this was a time when rules could be circumvented if you showed promise in the college's eyes. Several colleges I applied to did not think me suitable material, but I did find one that would take me. It was the quaintly and obviously named Brixton School of Building. Its architectural courses, or more correctly its exams, were not formally recognised by the examining body at the time though getting the necessary approvals were actively being sought. I was signed up for the Sandwich Course. Conventionally in architectural courses at that time you would do three full time college years, take your intermediate exams, do a year out working in an office before doing a further two full time college years before getting your diploma. This was followed by another year in an office before taking the professional practice exam and qualifying as an architect. The sandwich course was the same basic structure but the college time, after the first year, was divided into 6 month stints so that for the bulk of the college years you would do 6 months in college followed by 6 months in an office and so on.
While I and the others were concentrating on our college or office periods the negotiations for recognition continued. Those of us on the sandwich course felt we were getting the best of both worlds with that format, theory and practice bound together if not always integrated. It was up to the student to find work placements and some were better than others. There was a full time course at the college but we felt ourselves more grounded in our studies than them. But to our horror, when the college got its formal recognition just after we had taken our intermediate exams at the RIBA, we found it was only the full time course that was recognised and the sandwich course was required to be closed down. Apparently the RIBA thought that architecture could not be adequately taught part time. Fools. We all transferred to the full time course and I eventually qualified as an architect in 1973.
There were times when I felt severely challenged during my architectural college years especially when I needed to cope with the science of materials, technology and the construction industry, as without that school science I had no base level knowledge to call on. Then there was one college tutor who, when he found out I had only one "A" level, said he would not have let me in and I should be thrown out. His reasoning was a little tarnished by me regularly getting top commendations for my work and designs. Now I am no Richard Rogers or Norman Foster but I have had a successful career in architecture eventually becoming Associate Technical Director at one of the biggest and most successful architectural practices in the country. So those unpromising beginnings were no clue to my future.
My point about this story is that what you can achieve is not judged by what you were capable of as a child especially in terms of exams, or by what college you could or could not get into, especially by whether you went to college, did an apprenticeship, or just plain worked your way up. It is all about you, understanding and pushing yourself, opportunity, and yes sometimes just plain dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time and having some sort of faith in yourself.
I hope with all this discussion going on at the moment about universities, fees, loans, apprenticeships, etc, we end up with something open enough to allow people like me to achieve something quite extraordinary when you look back at how I started with so apparently little.
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