SO, A-level, GCSE and other exam results are in for another year and to those students can I say: Please don’t let those results – good bad or indifferent – define you.

I can’t pretend that’s entirely an original thought. I saw it on the Internet. But it really resonated with me – 50 years after I picked up my results!

I walked away from school, aged 16, with a clutch of half decent GCE O’levels. I didn’t really like school. I’m not sure school really liked me either (I was at times a challenging child!). So the idea of continuing education filled me with dread.

Instead I decided I wanted to go to work. But what to do? I had no idea. I applied for jobs as a hospital laboratory technician, a trainee accountant and a junior reporter on my local newspaper.

I actually started my working life in an accountancy office but left after a few months because I was so bored. It was then I got the job on my local paper. 

And here is the point of the story – I found someone who believed in me as a person and wasn’t really interested in my exam certificates.

The late Lloyd Jefferies was a great man, who taught me more about journalism (and working life in general) in my first three years than I learned in 40-plus years after that.

I signed up for a three-year apprenticeship, which in my opinion is the very best way to learn.  Why do successive governments claim that they are going to prioritise work-based training, then do nothing about it?

Why do we insist on pushing young people so hard to go to universities, with all the pressure to attain decent GCSE and A-level results that come with that?

My apprenticeship was the foundation stone for what ended up being a pretty decent career in TV and radio, mainly with the BBC. 

When I left I was pretty sure I was the only person in the newsroom without a degree. I’m absolutely certain I was the only one without A-levels.

So I say again – don’t let your results define you. Bad results can hold you back. I get that.

But you have skills and qualities that can’t be measured by certificates. Understand them and use them. You’ll be surprised what might happen.

If you wish to contact Clinton, you can email him at clinton.rogers@countygazette.co.uk.