Leaving an old career for a future in history

After eleven years in retailing, Paul Joseph is finally making his dream of teaching history come true.

"I loved history at school and had a great teacher who made the past come alive for me", Paul said.

"I didn't have the opportunity to go to university after school and my father encouraged me to start working straight away".

"But a health scare made me realise I didn't want to do what I was doing for the rest of my life and I started looking at tertiary study options".

"I heard about the certificate program at the Griffith Open Day and I thought it would be a good stepping stone to a degree".

Paul chose the Certificate in Introductory Humanities because it allowed him to dive straight into the history subjects he loved and it led to the Bachelor of Education (Secondary) program that he is currently studying.

"The degree is challenging and it's hard work doing it full-time, so I'm glad I started with the certificate", he said.

"Because I hadn't studied for a long time, I had to learn how to research and write essays again. The certificate program helped me develop those academic skills as well as indulging my interest in history".

For Paul, studying history has never been more important than it is in today's troubled times.

"We need to look back and reflect on the past to understand what's happening today and we can learn a lot from how people reacted to historical crises", he said.

"The challenge is to make history relevant to today's students, so they can use it to deal with contemporary issues".