Stow College
Access to Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) 2012-13
The Stow College 'Access to STEM' class of 2012/13 have moved on to various HN or degree programmes at local colleges or universities, including the City of Glasgow College, Strathclyde University, Stirling Uni, Glasgow Uni, UWS and GCU. They are now studying a variety of subjects, including (among others):

     - Marine Engineering
     - Physics & Astrophysics
     - Biomedical Engineering
     - Chemistry
     - Chemical Physics

What were the best bits of your SWAP programme and college experience?

"The support you get at college is really good. There's loads of support. The teachers communicate with each other and management communicates with each other, which is really good. But there's also loads of academic support, like tutorial sessions and stuff.  And the teachers will give you extra support if you need help with anything."

"The best thing about the way you're taught at college is the way things are interactive. It's not a one-way sort of thing. You're able to ask questions and the lecturers are really approachable and helpful."

"Lecturers treat you as adults and give you the respect due an adult; you're not treated like you may remember being treated at school! But with that comes certain expectations - that you'll take responsibility for your own learning and study independently, as well as in class." 

"There's a lot more choice and you can research personalised topics that are interesting to you." 

"The lecturers all have a good knowledge of their subject and are able to answer your questions and explore the subject to whatever level. Also there's a good structure to it. The best lecturers provided some sort of advance notice of what we would be learning the next week, so we could revise recent learning and read ahead for the next bit."

Any messages for future SWAP students?

"Commit to it. Be sure it's what you want to do, because it's not easy." 

"Make sure your money situation is in order, because it can be difficult to leave a full-time job and adjust to student income, but it's worth doing, definitely." 

"If you put the work in, you won't regret it." 

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