Despite facing the challenges of ill health, Aimee Glaze has excelled in her studies and has been named Public Services Student of the Year.

The 18-year-old from Basildon has stood out in her studies for her behaviour, standard of achievement and motivation to succeed.

Her tutors have recognised how much Aimee has progressed over the course of her two year programme. After her first year of study, it was unclear whether she would be able to progress on to the second year of her course, however, Aimee was determined to succeed and went above and beyond to accomplish her goals and is achieving distinction level grades in her assignments.

Her nomination citation noted: “Aimee is an outstanding student who uses her mature reflective skills to complete all assignments before deadlines to an outstanding level. 

“Aimee also supports other members of her class and discusses class issues with her personal tutor in a mature and balanced manner in order to achieve the best outcome.

“Seeing Aimee develop academically and personally into a mature, committed and outstanding student should be something to be rewarded.”

Aimee said she was ‘incredibly proud’ of her achievements.

She said: “This year I have faced a lot of challenges but I put endless amounts of effort into my college life and my assignments. I put all my energy into this year so I could come out with the best possible outcomes. 

“The support at the college has been second-to-none. The staff here always go above and beyond especially the wellbeing team. They have helped me so much throughout my time here, they helped me gain my confidence and walked me through my hard days when my illness was getting too much to handle. 

My lecturers are always working hard to accommodate for all of their students and you can easily see how passionate they are about their job which makes learning so much more enjoyable.”

Aimee is now pursing her dream of becoming a prison officer. 

I chose to study at South Essex Colleges Group to gain some skills in the real world and to learn self-defence so I am prepared for the real world. I also wanted to learn about medicine and was able to participate in first aid course.

I studied Level 2 Public Service and level 2 Applied Science at Luker Road from 2022-2024.

My background before coming to study at the college was living in foster care with my nan in a small well-known village in my local area, and going to a famous primary school and secondary school where singer Anne-Marie use to study.

I achieved GCSE English grade 5 and Maths grade 3. As well as pass in Public Services and distinction in Applied Science.

My time at the college was brilliant as so many staff members were there to support me to study.

After leaving college I struggled to find jobs and applied for over 500. I wasn’t getting anywhere because companies were saying they couldn't take me on because of my disability.

Then I saw a baggage handler opening with a company that was looking for people in the port of Tilbury. I applied, went for an interview and what a success! The company hired me on the day of the interview and accepted my background and disability.

I have been here for over three months working to load luggage onto Ambassador Cruise Lines and Viking Cruises  in London as we operate a remote boat tie-up in the middle of the Thames.

My job entails getting to work and signing in on the timesheet and being debriefed by the boss, setting up the baggage hall, unloading the luggage, setting arrivals area in departures and outside the cruise terminal, and loading the baggage, also putting all the equipment back into storage until the next cruise.

The cruise terminal I work at is the London International Cruise Terminal at the port of Tilbury and the Greenwich cruise terminal in Cutty Sark.

My time at college has helped me gain travel confidence and committing any issues that had to be resolved at my workplace and learning about safety as well.

My favourite funniest memory of being at the college was when I went to the additional learning support (ALS)  department to see the staff and half of them knew me from when I was little which confused Gabrielle and Sarah which did make me laugh.

The best thing about further education was learning self-defence and also gaining confidence and skills that I hadn't done before.

I would recommend the college because I was supported by the staff and support team who helped me with my understanding and stressfulness.

My greatest achievement so far was looking after my father when he was in hospital with a blood clot at the start of my employment. I also supported my brother during the scare.

My ambitions for the future are to hopefully be able to work for cruise lines or work in border force or security at the cruise terminal.

Find out more about Public Services Level 2 Diploma or Applied Science with Technology Level 2 Certificate