Raymond Okafor
Security Supervisor · Birmingham, West Midlands
Access to HE Diploma – Psychology Pathway (OCNL)
“The tutors are genuinely invested – they tell you exactly where you've gone wrong, help you correct it, and when you resubmit and pass, the feeling is incredible. It shows they're putting in real effort, not just ticking boxes.”
The Challenge
Raymond had spent twelve years in the private security industry, ending up as a supervisor overseeing a team of twenty officers across a retail complex in central Birmingham. He was good at his job, but he had always been fascinated by why people behaved the way they did – particularly in high-stress situations – and had spent his personal reading time consuming popular psychology books for years. At 38, he decided to act on his long-deferred ambition to study psychology formally and aim for a degree. He had GCSEs but no A-Levels and had heard that Access to HE was the route most adult students in his position took.
Why learndirect
Raymond chose learndirect after comparing several online Access to HE providers. “The thing that stood out was that the tutors are actual subject specialists, not just administrators,” he said. After submitting his first assignment – a piece on cognitive psychology that he was convinced was going to fail – the feedback he received was detailed, specific, and constructive. “They told me exactly what was missing, where my argument was weak, and what I needed to add. I rewrote it, submitted again, and got a Merit. That experience taught me more than anything else could have.” The resubmission process – which he had initially seen as a sign of failure – became his most powerful learning tool.
The Outcome
Raymond completed his OCNL Access to HE Diploma (Psychology pathway) with Distinction grades in eight of his twelve graded units – equivalent to over 100 UCAS points – and secured an unconditional offer from Aston University in Birmingham for their BSc Psychology programme. He is studying part-time while continuing his security role, with a career goal of moving into forensic psychology or occupational psychology consulting following postgraduate study. Chartered Psychologists with a forensic specialism earn £45,000–£75,000 in the UK.