The sky’s the limit for Niamh

Niamh Pamment

Colchester Sixth Form College student Niamh Pamment has an exciting university journey ahead.

The sky’s the limit for Niamh Pamment, thanks to support from the Uni Connect Essex-based schools’ outreach programme, Make Happen. Supported by our workshops and bursaries, Niamh is on her way to pursuing an exciting university degree in Aero-Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering with Space Technologies next year.

Throughout the sixth form, Niamh has taken part in the Future Ready programme, a series of progressive workshops and funding opportunities organised by Make Happen, delivered in partnership with her sixth form.

Sessions ranged from how to write a great CV, to understanding yourself better, and exploring Higher Education and its financial implications – all with the intention of providing the practical guidance, facts and figures teenagers need at the crossroads of the sixth form to help them decide the best path to take.

Niamh said: “The most important one for me was attending the open day at the University of Essex; I took my mother and it really changed her mind about my going to university, especially because of the financial issues involved. She realised what funding would be available to me, and how a degree could really improve my future.”

Having attended a number of other university open days and put forward applications, following her A-level studies in Art, Mathematics and Physics, Niamh wants to pursue her passion for science at degree-level to explore aerospace engineering. As an air cadet, she has developed her interest further in flight and the possibilities of space tourism

in the future. In 2019, having won a national essay-writing competition, Niamh’s prize saw her visit the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France – where she met like-minded students and had the opportunity to pick the brains of some of the world’s leading women in science. Niamh is now looking forward to the next step after sixth form: going to university to gain a BEng qualification and start out on her own STEM career.

She said: “I’m really looking forward to having independence, planning my own study, having new experiences, joining new clubs to gain new skills, and meeting students with similar passions and interests to me.”

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"The variety of Future Ready courses was fantastic. There is something for everyone, no matter what you’re hoping to do after college."