Today we meet Sophie Breslin. Sophie is an amazing woman, she’s a Mechanical Engineer who runs her own business and has worked with multi-billion pound retail companies and now works with ambitious SMEs to move them to the next level with automation. Her website describes her as ‘tenacious, focused on tangible results and motivated to achieve excellence .’

Liz chatted to Sophie about her education and how she got to where she is now:

Hi Sophie, could you tell me a bit about your education?

I started in a primary school which I really didn’t like. I struggled to sit still in the classroom and I found it really difficult. At the age of nine I moved to a private school and was so lucky that they knew how to motivate me and it was really successful.

That sounds interesting, tell me more…

The PE teacher spotted that I needed to be active and everyday we did sport. They motivated me by saying that if I did my homework I was allowed 2 hours in the gym.

Something else I really found helpful was that it was okay to tell a teacher if I didn’t understand. They would then find a different way to teach me the topic. It felt okay to challenge the teaching style when I needed something else.

 What happened after that school?

Unfortunately I went to a grammar school which was very much like the primary school I originally went to. To be honest it was a disaster. The teaching was really academic and I couldn’t sit down all the time that was expected of me. I was seen as disruptive.

That sounds like it was a challenge.

Yes, somehow I made it through O levels, although for Maths I had a tutor.

How did the tutor help you?

I couldn’t get on with the way the maths was taught at school. When I got information in a way that worked for me, my results improved dramatically. In fact I went from an E to an A!

What did you do after O levels?

So I went on to do A levels at the same school. It wasn’t working and I thought that it was the subjects I was doing, so I switched subjects. That didn’t help though as it was the environment and way that I was being taught which was the problem. After the first year I was asked to leave.

How sad. How did that make you feel?

When I left school I felt rejected and stupid. I wondered what the other students had that I hadn’t. Now I realise that they had the ability to absorb the knowledge, but not question it.

What did you decide to do?

I started by doing some dressmaking, then my mum saw an advert in the paper about being paid to learn to type. The idea of being paid to learn was really motivating for me so I went and did secretarial training. I scored 100% in the typing exam and really enjoyed it.

But you’re an engineer now, that’s quite a change!

At the grammar school I did an aptitude test which came out with Engineering, but because I was disliking education at that school I didn’t want to take any notice of it. I did enjoy the secretarial work and I was good with the maths, for example in creating tables with the typewriter.

In the mid 80s we had a mainframe computer and an engineer came in to program it. He couldn’t get the right answer and I told him it was because he was asking it the wrong question.

How did he take that?

Not well! He replied with ‘what would you know you are just a secretary?’ So I decided to prove him wrong and became an engineer.

Did that involve lots more education?

Yes, I needed A levels which I didn’t have, so I completed a conversion course and was paid to do so by the government.

Lots of motivation then!

Yes, I wanted to do the course and money was a motivator for me.

After that I studied on the very first Engineering Systems Design (ESD) degree course at South Bank University.

What was different about this than when you were at school?

The degree was full of workshops rather than theory. It was hands-on and if I then needed to know something I’d look it up, but it was all relevant to my project. My final year project involved lots of innovation, which really suited me and sparked my interest.

At Skills4Parents we talk a lot about learning styles and how beneficial understanding the young person is. How do you learn?

For me it’s about learning from experience and doing. That’s why I loved my degree and I still love learning through my work.

What advice would you give parents?

Find out how your child learns and consider schools that will suit. If you give the child the right way to learn in the way that they need it, then they will do so! It’s also worth considering pathways that are not the usual straight to university routes as they need to be motivated.

Thanks Sophie for your time and sharing your story with us.

Find out more about Sophie and her work at www.sophiebreslin.co.uk. 
If you’d like to know more about Learning Styles and how you can discover what motivates your young person you can get our helpful guide here.