Case Studies: The Ad Man

Mark Ansell’s decision to study for an HND in Business and Finance set him on the right track and gave him some practical work experience which fuelled his enthusiasm.

Work experience is a big part of a Higher National course and for Mark this meant working for a designer clothes store, providing marketing and business strategy reports and presentations to the company’s chairman and marketing director.

Gaining distinctions in his HND, he progressed straight onto the second year of a business studies degree. When he completed this he was selected by BT for their graduate training scheme.

As part of BT’s UK marketing team, Mark became an advertising manager, working on high-profile campaigns. Over the last two years Mark has also found time to take his education further and has completed a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies.

He explained: “A careers adviser pointed me towards an HND and it’s the best thing I could have done. It provided the springboard I needed to go on to other qualifications but more importantly gave me the chance to work on real projects in a workplace situation. A lot of graduates don’t have that sort of vocational experience and it’s helped me to rise above them.”