Former lecturer launches careers business with North East BIC support

A former lecturer in Sunderland has flexed her entrepreneurial muscles with the launch of a new venture.

Julie Welsh, who spent 15 years as a lecturer after changing career, has launched a new business to support other career changers to reach their goals.

Adults Achieving with Julie offers one-to-one tuition for adults in further and higher education, providing wide ranging support including help with English, IT and study skills, as well as coaching, smarter ways to study and confidence-building.

Julie launched the business after being made redundant from her role as lecturer, and hopes that her personal career-change experience along with her professional knowledge of education will help her to expand operations.

Julie explained: “There is always appetite for career change when people get to their 30s and 40s but I expect Coronavirus will prove a catalyst for a lot more change.

“People have had a chance to reflect on their lives or have had changes to their circumstances that will lead them to do new things and go back into education. We only live once and we deserve to make the most of it.”

Julie worked with the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) to prepare her business for launch, attending group workshops and one-to-one sessions with business adviser and start-up specialist Victoria Moodie.

Julie was also supported through the New Enterprise Allowance scheme - an initiative part funded by the European Social Fund aiming to help people who are out of work to set up a business by providing practical and financial support.

Business adviser Victoria added: “Julie’s experience is a perfect example of how business ownership can prove a great extension to a successful career.

“She has accrued a wealth of transferable skills during her time as a lecturer and is now using this experience, energy and empathy in a new way to benefit others and to fulfil her own ambitions.”