00.01 My name’s Steve Gayfer and I’m a teaching and learning development manager and lecturer at Cambridge Regional College. We’ve got a wide variety of courses at Cambridge Regional College from construction, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, heating and ventilating, plumbing and we really teach in all the construction trades in the Academy of Construction.
00.24 The subjects at school that I really excelled were the practical activities. I was very sort of middle of the road at all the other subjects at school but I really, really, excelled at practical activities, and if I was going to take a career I’d foresee that this is where it was going to go, really, something practical. They may have recognised my potential at school but didn’t nurture it. I was very much one of a number, I was middle of the stream and I didn’t have the opportunities there to show them what I could do. You know, you went to metalwork or woodwork. Well, it’s a bit limited, isn’t it, I thought at the time. Certainly not stretched enough.
01.09 I’d been at college for two months and I was made redundant and this changed my course. A very negative was brought into a positive. I found a trade that I really enjoyed. I got another job as a pipe fitter and a welder on sites and I loved every minute of it. I excelled at it, I was good at it and it really gave me the confidence that I hadn’t had before at school.
01.32 A post became available at a technical college for a technician to support lecturers. Now this I saw as a way perhaps that I could learn a little bit more of my trade. Although I had practical expertise I had no expertise in another trade and that would be in the trade of teaching. I still weren’t too sure whether I could make the vocational heights of that to go into teaching, but setting your sights high I believe in and,you know, you can achieve it.
02.07 I’m glad I went straight into the work environment and didn’t go onto university. One, I didn’t have the qualifications to go to university, but I believe I’d done something as important by getting some practical skills and learning practical skills that I can put over and help practical persons.
02.06 What motivates me is my passion for teaching and learning. To see my students come in here and I can relate to them. Some of them come from school with no targets, not a lot of ambition. Once they see they’ve got skills and we can bring those skills out, they just fly. I’ve got students now that are running their own companies in Cambridge, they’re working on the site here on doing, and running multi-million pound contracts.
03.01 Away from work I like spending time with my family. I have a son and a daughter both working in London and I’ve just had a new grandson so spending time with those is precious to me. And I’m a passionate fly fisher as well. I love fly fishing and, again, some of the best days in the Yorkshire Dales with my family walking, fly fishing and it’s just great. I love it.
03.32 Do you know, I think I can quite honestly say that I haven’t had any regrets, no. The career path didn’t start off as intended but the way it’s panned out, yeah, I’ll settle for that.
Steve Gayfer
Steve Gayfer
00.01 My name’s Steve Gayfer and I’m a teaching and learning development manager and lecturer at Cambridge Regional College. We’ve got a wide variety of courses at Cambridge Regional College from construction, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, heating and ventilating, plumbing and we really teach in all the construction trades in the Academy of Construction.
00.24 The subjects at school that I really excelled were the practical activities. I was very sort of middle of the road at all the other subjects at school but I really, really, excelled at practical activities, and if I was going to take a career I’d foresee that this is where it was going to go, really, something practical. They may have recognised my potential at school but didn’t nurture it. I was very much one of a number, I was middle of the stream and I didn’t have the opportunities there to show them what I could do. You know, you went to metalwork or woodwork. Well, it’s a bit limited, isn’t it, I thought at the time. Certainly not stretched enough.
01.09 I’d been at college for two months and I was made redundant and this changed my course. A very negative was brought into a positive. I found a trade that I really enjoyed. I got another job as a pipe fitter and a welder on sites and I loved every minute of it. I excelled at it, I was good at it and it really gave me the confidence that I hadn’t had before at school.
01.32 A post became available at a technical college for a technician to support lecturers. Now this I saw as a way perhaps that I could learn a little bit more of my trade. Although I had practical expertise I had no expertise in another trade and that would be in the trade of teaching. I still weren’t too sure whether I could make the vocational heights of that to go into teaching, but setting your sights high I believe in and,you know, you can achieve it.
02.07 I’m glad I went straight into the work environment and didn’t go onto university. One, I didn’t have the qualifications to go to university, but I believe I’d done something as important by getting some practical skills and learning practical skills that I can put over and help practical persons.
02.06 What motivates me is my passion for teaching and learning. To see my students come in here and I can relate to them. Some of them come from school with no targets, not a lot of ambition. Once they see they’ve got skills and we can bring those skills out, they just fly. I’ve got students now that are running their own companies in Cambridge, they’re working on the site here on doing, and running multi-million pound contracts.
03.01 Away from work I like spending time with my family. I have a son and a daughter both working in London and I’ve just had a new grandson so spending time with those is precious to me. And I’m a passionate fly fisher as well. I love fly fishing and, again, some of the best days in the Yorkshire Dales with my family walking, fly fishing and it’s just great. I love it.
03.32 Do you know, I think I can quite honestly say that I haven’t had any regrets, no. The career path didn’t start off as intended but the way it’s panned out, yeah, I’ll settle for that.
Steve Gayfer is Teaching and Learning Development Manager and Lecturer at Cambridge Regional College. He was a pipe fitter and welder, and got his first job in Further Education as a technician to support lecturers. He set his sights on becoming a lecturer. He loves teaching practical skills to practical people.
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