After leaving school at 17, Erin found a different way forward — one that would ultimately put university within reach.

When Erin left school in 2021 at just 17, she was burnt out and felt that life was getting on top of her.

She hadn’t given up on learning. She simply needed a different way forward.

Erin’s return to the classroom began modestly. She enrolled in a typing course at Inverell Campus out of interest and, as she put it, to “give herself something to do”.

It turned out to be the beginning of something much bigger.

Staff quickly recognised Erin’s potential and encouraged her to enrol in the BSB20120 Certificate II in Workplace Skills. As she developed practical workplace and business administration skills, Erin made an important discovery: she’d missed learning.

That realisation gave her the confidence to look further ahead. Erin went on to enrol in a university pathway-enabling course, with plans to begin a Bachelor of Science in 2024.

Along the way, staff at Inverell Campus watched Erin grow in confidence and put her new skills into practice. During busy periods, she even helped out in the campus administration centre, gaining practical experience in the kind of workplace environment her training had prepared her for.

For a young woman who had left school at 17 feeling burnt out, returning to learning opened a very different path — and showed that leaving school early doesn’t have to mean leaving education behind.