A BASINGSTOKE teenager who lost his carpentry apprenticeship at the start of the pandemic has turned his life around by securing high A-level grades, setting himself on course to become a lawyer.

Bradley Chick, 19, from Chineham, who lost his job after a year as an apprentice, made a late decision to join Queen Mary’s College (QMC) in Basingstoke.

On Thursday, August 18, when the A-level results arrived, he was excited to see he passed with flying colours.

With two As in law and extended project qualification, and a distinction star in business, Bradley has now secured a paralegal data apprenticeship at Evalian, a data protection and GDPR consultation company based in Winchester.

READ MORE: 35 photos from A-level results day at QMC

“I was originally gonna go to the Royal Holloway University, but I decided to do an apprenticeship instead,” Bradley said.

“So that's two years long, and from there I'll be able to go on to do a level seven solicitor degree apprenticeship. So that's another five years training. And after that, I will get my law degree and my solicitor qualification. So hopefully that's the plan.”

Although he has planned his next seven years to become a solicitor, Bradley said he was rather “clueless” at the start of the pandemic.

“It was a scary time,” he said. “Before I went to the carpentry apprenticeship, I had already been accepted to QMC for English literature, history and business. But I wasn’t too excited about it.

“At the same time, a family friend messaged my parents and said there’s a apprenticeship opportunity. His son is my friend with whom I played football with. So, he said he can pick me up to job. The workshop was quite close and I would get money.

“So I said, ‘you know what, I'll just do that’. And as the job went on, I started to get a hang of it.

“Unfortunately, he had to let me go after a year because there was no money coming in. Honestly, it was in the middle of the pandemic world and nobody was taking anyone on and I was in a scary position.”

Fortunately, Bradley took it as a sign when the apprenticeship ended abruptly. He wanted to do something else and decided to go back to QMC to study law.

“In a way, I'm grateful for pandemic. Although it was very difficult, it opened a new door for me,” Bradley said.

Bradley said struggled in the first year of doing law. His grades weren’t good and he had plenty of questions, but towards the end of the first year, he was awarded the in-house law awards because he was doing better than before. 

In the second year, he went on an upward spiral and his grades were consistently getting better.

He won the same award for the second year, which was another boost.

“I was participating in the law mock trial where my friend Tommy and I managed to convince the jury on all four cases we did,” Bradley said.

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“That was quite a nice moment. I realised I'm not only understanding the law, but applying it as well. And you also know lawyers are earning some of the highest amount of money in the world. Although that's not the main focus, it's definitely an incentive – that I can earn so much money from doing something that I actually really enjoy.”

Bradley’s only disappointment is getting a D in sports.

“I wasn't very happy with it,” he said, “but I want to be a lawyer, so I don’t mind about sport too much.”