Case Study
My Vocational pathway to becoming an Occupational Therapist
 My name is Carina. My interests and hobbies include
European and foreign travel. I enjoy reading biographies, swimming and
working out at the gym. My future plans include inter railing across
Europe and spending a ski season in France.
I chose to study the Intermediate GNVQ in Health and
Social Care, as I did not gain sufficient A-C grades in my GCSE examinations.
Within the course we had the opportunity to go on visits to a variety
of health and social care settings as well as having a lot of speakers
come into school. In addition, the things that I enjoyed about the course
was, that it was coursework based with multiple choice exams, we were
given one main text book of our own so that it was available to us all
the time, the teachers were very supportive and you could easily ask
for help. The Intermediate course gave me the opportunity to acquire
the extra qualifications because I passed with a Merit grade, equivalent
to 4 Bs at GCSE and this allowed me to continue into Advanced level study.
I enjoyed the format of the Intermediate course and decided that this
style of course suited me and so I decided to study the Advanced GNVQ
over the next two years. This course at Distinction grade is equivalent
to an A and B grade at A level. The Advanced course helped me to develop
my research skills and although we still had our own individual text
book it was essential that I researched from a much wider variety of
sources (a skill that has proved invaluable at university). I was very
keen to take six Additional units equivalent to a further A level. I
was delighted with my Distinction. I never thought I would get three
A levels.
Originally I had applied to do Occupational Therapy
but I was not offered a place mainly because my GCSEs in Maths and Science
were not that strong. I chose to do a degree course in Applied Social
Science and Health Studies. The course was very broad based and covered
a range of different areas including formation
of friendships, sports coaching, physiology and many more.
This meant that you could go into many fields of work.
Like me if someone did not get a C grade in Maths and Science you could
easily do an alternate degree for one year and then transfer to do Occupational
Therapy. I was given this chance but by then I liked my degree course
too much to give it up! I graduated with a BA Honours 2:2.
I took a year off to have a break from studying and
to see part of the world. I worked for six months in a local gym to save
enough money to go around the world. Before I left I decided to apply
to go back to university to do Occupational Therapy. My first degree
allowed me to study for my ultimate goal, I am now in my first year.
The reason that I decided to pursue this subject is because the job
itself is varied; working across all age groups and once qualified
I can practice abroad. As yet I have not decided which area I would like
to specialise in once I graduate. Looking back I think this course would
have been too difficult for me at the earlier stage, as it is very intense.
The choices I made about my post 16 courses proved
to be the best for me and I could not be more pleased with the opportunities
I have been offered.
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