Charles Bell Reilly
After spending several years away from education while travelling the world and working in a variety of roles, Charles Bell Reilly made the decision to return to education to study Civil and Environmental Engineering at Strathclyde.
He shares what motivated him to take this step and how the Engineering Academy programme supported his transition back into education, helping him rebuild confidence and succeed in his studies.
Why engineering?
I travelled around Europe for years, working summers in a Norwegian hotel, and teaching English in Spain and Poland before finally settling in Milan. I loved my job but alas, when the pandemic hit, it was no longer economically sustainable, and I returned to Scotland.
After a miserable summer washing dishes on Arran, I took a labouring job dismantling the massive temporary structures at COP26. It was cold, wet and extremely strenuous, but we were a small army, and I was so impressed by the modular structures we were working with and what we could achieve in a short time as a collective.
At the same time, I was reading a book, ‘All that is Solid Melts into Air’ by Marshall Berman, exploring the contradictions of modernism and its confrontations with actual modernity. In that moment, I realised how much I identified with his figure of the ‘modern’ and our capacity to reshape our environment, even if we were just transforming the site of a major international event back into a car park! I had found a new passion in Civil Engineering and its ability to reshape the human experience and the humans themselves. Now I just needed an education to match!
Returning to study
I applied to an Access course at the University of Glasgow, which was necessary given that my school qualifications had expired, giving me the prerequisites to apply to study engineering. I started my present degree course via the Engineering Academy the very next year.
The short answer is that I had the opportunity to try many different roles over the years, but higher education was always a calling in the back of my mind. When I finally found what made me tick, something both technical and creative (and might also be well-remunerated!), I took steps to pursue it.
Engineering Academy
I first heard of the Engineering Academy when applying to Strathclyde, at which point I received a friendly email letting me know that while the access course I had taken would not meet the direct entry requirements, I would be welcome to apply via the Engineering Academy.
When I investigated it, I was really attracted by the chance to learn practical workshop skills in addition to a solid engineering foundation. An advantage of the broad-based education in first year also meant that if I were to have had a change of heart, I would have been in a very good position to pivot to another engineering discipline if I had wanted to.
Another benefit I noted at the time was the opportunity to ease myself back into full-time education after a long hiatus. College classes are typically much smaller than university year groups and I felt this would give me ample chance to find my feet, get to know some people, and develop study routines before jumping into a full university timetable.
I can say with certainty that my year in college was excellent preparation for joining the mainstream students in second year. Whilst there is a strong element of self-direction at the college, the more prescriptive structure gave me an indication of how best to approach the content being taught, helping to develop good habits of note-taking and enforced study time when I hadn’t quite understood something. The content itself covered the vast majority of first year (and some of second year too) at the university.
Why Strathclyde?
For me, Strathclyde was the obvious choice. I applied to several universities and had offers lined up, but Strathclyde was the only conditional (on the condition of taking the Engineering Academy route).
I really liked the clash of buildings from different eras around the campus and felt a strange connection, having been born in the maternity hospital, now Rottenrow Gardens at the centre of the University. In addition to its reputation for engineering excellence, I also had friends who had studied at Strathclyde and had only positive things to say about their time there.
It's never too late
I think Strathclyde is preparing me extremely well for my future career. The broad scope of engineering studies, from chemistry and geotechnics to structural and transport, has helped me narrow down my interests in an otherwise large subject area.
When I left school, even though I had done well academically, I was pretty lost. Despite excelling at maths and the sciences, I had a strong creative impulse and ended up studying the humanities (English Literature and Music). It didn’t last, and though I could say it just wasn’t for me, I think the reality is that I wasn’t ready to dedicate to something and needed some time to figure out what I wanted to do.
I think there is a tendency to funnel young people towards education and big choices at a time when other spheres of their lives are just opening up, and I’m a strong advocate of doing silly things, rubbish jobs and throwing yourself out of your social comfort zone while you’re still figuring out what’s important. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone, but I know for myself I wouldn’t be getting all that I’m currently receiving from my course if I were fresh out of school.
My advice is to take your time – a year or two (or ten!) is not that much in the grand scheme of things, and if you actively know why you are studying, it will be all the more rewarding. Talk to lots of different people, and if you have questions, know that a well-written email out of the blue gets a response much more often than you’d think!
Entry points like the Engineering Academy are a great opportunity to ease your way into studies, allowing you to start university with a network and a bunch of skills that would have been harder to develop as part of the mainstream cohort.