Mum of three has aced her fast track Access to Nursing course at college and is started a degree in Paediatric Nursing.
Oluwaseun Oluantwise was born in the UK and emigrated to Nigeria as a young child, returning when she was 28 years old.
In Nigeria, she left secondary school and went to college to study journalism and administration. She was interested in nursing, however, Oluwaseun explains “I did mainly arts subjects at school, rather than the sciences and so I wasn’t allowed to study nursing at university.”
It wasn’t until 2016 - ten years after she moved back to the UK - that Oluwaseun started thinking about retraining.
She came to Barking & Dagenham College and they told her that she needed to start from scratch with her maths and her English; she jokes: “Luckily for me I passed; I’ve not got age on my side, it was quite hard!”
She then fell pregnant with her third child and so took a break from studying, returning to the college in 2017 to join the fast track Access course. She completed her Access to Nursing course, having received distinctions in every single module.
Oluwaseun says: “I’m very proud of myself; the eldest of my three children who is 15 is impressed too; she keeps saying to me: 'You tell me what a challenge the course is, but then you keep coming home with distinctions Mum!'.”
She applied to 5 universities and got offers from all 5! She chose to go to Anglia Ruskin University, based in Chelmsford to do a three-year degree in Paediatric Nursing.
Regarding her time at Barking & Dagenham College, Oluwaseun comments:
“I looked forward to going to college every day. They are so supportive and they make sure they settle you in properly. Also, they never, ever tire of explaining things over and over again if you need them to. It’s a great place to learn.”
