Nik Richards

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"So, when I was in school as a student I really didn't have a good time. I hated school, didn't want to be there, it was the last thing that I wanted to do each day was to go to school. So as soon as I could in Year 10, I was gone. I went and tried to make my own way in life, and I did and was reasonably successful. I did my own thing and then at the age of 40 I was at a point when I decided, what do I want to do for the rest of my life? I went to a job fair and in the job fair was advertising a course for people who had gone out into industry and were coming back into education. It was like a light bulb moment. I had no qualifications to my name and I went on this 4 year journey of getting into education, enjoying education and loving learning. My biggest motivation for it was trying really to work with kids who were like me. Kids who didn't want to be there. Kids who wanted to be off doing their own thing and just, I guess being a sounding block, that's what I get from the job. I understand that it's not about learning particular skills, but it's about becoming useful in society and being able to connect with students who don't connect with education it probably my biggest motivation and it's why I get up everyday. I love the job. I love working with all the other teachers that I work with and just enjoying their company, their journeys and it's always good to be able to see an ex-student outside of school that just wants to come up and say hi. You know then that you've made some kind of connection and that's always a boost for me." 

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