FORMER Hartpury College student Tom Lawton is now working as a crocodile keeper at the famous Australia Zoo in Queensland.
Tom is one of the successes of a new website launched to help school pupils and their families find their way through the maze of career choices.
The Aimhigher site, http://www.focusoncareers.org.uk">www.focusoncareers.org.uk has been tailor-made for the county.
It covers 13 employment areas, includes local information on each, links to post-16 education and training providers in the county and the region's universities as well as case studies about local students.
Designed to be used by students working alongside teachers, careers advisers or their parents, Focus on Careers also includes downloadable career lesson plans for teachers, including a choice of almost 40 different activities for young people to help them get the most from the resource.
Year 10 PE students at Heywood Community School used the new website to find out more about potential careers.
The school's Aimhigher coordinator, Sue Lusted, said: "They found the case studies and the range of careers available particularly interesting. It was easy to use and the content was very appropriate for their BTEC coursework."
Tom, 23, always wanted to work with animals – when he was younger, he bred reptiles and helped out in a reptile shop – but he didn't get very high grades at school. Now he has a full time job at the zoo, which was founded by the late Steve Irwin.
After leaving school at 16, Tom went to the College of West Anglia to study a National Diploma in Animal Care – a two year, full-time work-related course, equivalent to three 'A' Levels – and then moved to Hartpury College for a two-year Foundation Degree in agriculture and conservation. He then converted this into a full BSc honours degree by studying for a further year.
Although his studies weren't directly related to crocodiles, his tutors urged him wherever possible to make his coursework relevant to the reptiles.
"This helped me understand the work a lot more. The courses I did in wildlife conservation and habitat management have been useful – I've just adapted the information and used it over here," he said.
"I love crocodiles. They are amazing animals that are very misunderstood. I love educating people about crocodiles and changing their views – most people think they are man-eating, cold-blooded killers, but they're actually very complex, clever and fascinating creatures."
Other students whose experiences of different routes into higher education have been used as case studies include:
•Vicki Haines, a former Newent School student, who did an apprenticeship with Gloucester City Council
•Jenny Barnett, who, despite not getting very good GCSEs at Whitecross School in Lydney, is now working hard towards a career in the police.
•Former Newent school student Emily Huntingford who initially set her sights on a career in outdoor education but is now studying for a degree in environmental sciences.