Who's who of Scotland's college superstars and how it shaped them

Recognised as successful Scots, they share a common background: they kickstarted their careers at college.

In some cases, success came despite leaving school with few or no Highers.

Others opted not to pursue university. Instead, the prospect of merging earning with studying at college was the better option.

Such as Gary Maclean, Scotland’s first national chef, winner of Masterchef: The Professionals, a multi-award winner and senior chef lecturer at City of Glasgow College.

Back at school, however, the future was not looking terribly bright.

“I was rubbish at school,” he admits. “I think it was the environment, 30 kids in a room, sitting for 50 minutes then moving to another room.

“I wasn’t engaged. I was the worst in every class at school with the exception of home economics.”

Home was a council estate in the west of Glasgow. It was the 1980s, unemployment was rife and university never on the horizon.

“It was a dark time for families in Glasgow,” he remembers. “I never gave university a moment’s thought. In those days, going to college was an accomplishment.”

He had worked in city centre kitchens from the age 15. But the catering course at Glasgow College of Food Technology at Anniesland – later part of City of Glasgow College – proved life changing.

“I never looked back,” he says.

It was a different world to now, when catering students learned dozens of sauces off by heart, exams were handwritten, and the language of food was French.

“College has changed a lot,” he says. “Back then everything was a homage to France, we’d be learning 19th century dishes and 20 derivatives of a basic sauce.

“Now we focus on skills for work and the individual.”

Modern college responds to their needs and talents, he adds.

“There are people with caring responsibilities, with children looking for part time work or qualifications to get them better wages.

“We are aware that we have to look at every single student and make sure that we are helping them to achieve.”

Gary left college, got his first head chef job aged 22, and went on to open his own restaurant. But even when working in the febrile world of catering, he returned to college to teach the next generation of students.

“It was my escape: if you’re opening a £2 million restaurant, there’s the pressure of trying to get it open, finding the staff. I could go to college to take a class and enjoy the process.”

Now 53, he credits college with giving him everything in his career and in his personal life, including his five children: he met his wife in his first year of college.

Read more: The State of Scotland's Colleges: Find all articles in the series here

And he describes colleges as a lifeline, particularly for young people who leave school fearful for their futures and convinced they are destined to fail.

“What happens to these people if they can’t find their way?,” he asks. “They have all the issues we don’t want, unemployment, mental health, poor lifestyle, health problems and instead of contributing to society they are costing society.

“It’s a spiral they never recover from.

“At college, if someone comes with no qualifications, they can find something that works for them.

“There are also a lot of young people who are pushed into headline jobs, too young to express that they don’t want to be a lawyer or an accountant.

“They grow up and something happens like a divorce or a parent dying, and they don’t have that pressure to keep doing something they don’t want to do.

“They come back to college and without exception excel because they’re doing something they want to do.

“Colleges save lives,” he adds, “but they are often overlooked.”

Yet, he concedes, there remains a body of thought that university equals ‘best’.

“There can be a snobbery factor around university. But you can have people with great university qualifications stacking shelves because they can’t find work.

“The university graduate working in McDonald's will eventually find their place in the world and make a good standard of living - quite often they end up in hospitality.

“But we have to be realistic about where skills are needed and where the funding goes.”

Budget restrictions have meant outreach work that can capture young people at school and engage them with college options has suffered in recent years.

That has raised fears that young people might slip through the gaps or make poor choices.

He believes more could be done to highlight the hospitality sector in particular and college as a smart career move.

“There’s never been a better time for people to join the hospitality industry, the hours are maybe half what they were 25 years ago, the money has doubled.

“It’s an amazing time for people to come in. They could end up working in New York, Sydney, on a luxury cruise liner.

“They will have skills to take them anywhere they want: there are few jobs where within five years you could be going around the world.

“What we do in college blows my mind.”

Colleges across Scotland have moulded the careers of many well-known faces and others who, while less familiar, have soared to the top.

Lorraine Kelly shunned university in favour of work and college (Image: Getty)

Like presenter Lorraine Kelly, who shunned university for a local newspaper job and a year’s journalism course at Napier College, a forerunner to Napier University, to business tycoon Lord Willie Haughey.

He once said he is “one million per cent certain’ he would never have created his global business employing 14,000 people had it not been for his apprenticeship at Glasgow’s Springburn College, now part of Glasgow Kelvin College.

“The apprenticeship was fantastic,” he said. “The teaching at the college was a wonderful experience. You got proper training at college while also working with ‘grown-ups’.
“Without the experience I got from my apprenticeship I could have ended up anywhere. But the discipline I received set me up for life.”

Entrepreneur Lord Haughey studied at Glasgow's Springburn College (Image: Colin Mearns)

Anstruther-born radio star Edith Bowman failed all her Highers in fifth year in school, a jolt that she later admitted forced to her take her future more seriously.

It led her to an HND Communication Studies at Fife College, where the media and marketing modules offered a taste of broadcasting. A degree in Media and Communication at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret College was next and a career in radio as both a producer and presenter.

Ex-college student turned radio presenter, Edith Bowman (Image: Martin Shields/Newsquest)

Fife College’s Kirkcaldy Campus – or ‘Kirky Tech’ - was a hotbed for acting talent in the 1980s and 1990s.

Actor and producer Dougray Scott was plain Stephen Scott growing up in the Woodside area of Glenrothes when he began the full-time acting and performance course at Kirkcaldy in the early 1980s.

He went on to the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, and an impressive career in film, theatre and television.

Ewan McGregor left school at 16 for a year-long foundation course in drama at Kirkcaldy, before the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, eventually, Hollywood.

Ewan Macgregor began his acting career at college in Kirkcaldy (Image: Getty)

And Shirley Henderson, Moaning Myrtle in two Harry Potter films, left school at 16 to study a one-year foundation drama course at ‘the Tech’

She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama but says college “instilled a sense of play and a drive to keep trying when things get hard which they always do in the world of performance.”

Scotland’s colleges have also produced ‘stars’ in other sectors, such as health.

Daren Mochrie left school in Edinburgh with few qualifications to become Chief Executive and Chief Ambulance Officer for North West Ambulance Service, overseeing over 8,000 staff and volunteers, and managing a half a billion pounds plus budget.

He began by studying for a CMI Diploma in Management at Fife College.

“College was transformative,” he said. “Although I had the clinical qualifications, it provided me with the necessary skills and confidence to pursue my aspirations, despite not having traditional academic qualifications.”

And James Mullins, Group Director of Patient Safety across two Mental Health & Community NHS Trusts in Northamptonshire & Leicestershire, credits Borders College for setting him on the right path.

He completed an HNC in social sciences at the college, then a diploma in Adult Nursing at Napier University and a degree in Mental Health Nursing.

 “I left school with no qualifications, no particular aspirations and no direction,” he says on the College website.

“The time studying at Borders College was invaluable as I learned how to write academically, critique and construct an argument. Essentially, the course taught me to think objectively. I use these skills daily.”

The same college’s HND Business Administration course sent Norman Chipakupaku, on the road to become Permanent Secretary (Ministry of Defence) for the Republic of Zambia.

It also helped mould sports stars: Stuart Hogg was the first rugby student from Borders College BASE Rugby course to break into the professional ranks; fellow pros Corey Tait, studied Sports Coaching and Development HNC at the college, and Rory Darge studied on the HND Coaching and Developing Sport course.

Actor Dougray Scott went to college in Kirkcaldy (Image: PA)

Colleges are often associated with everyday trades such as electricians, joiners and plumbers.

They, too, can rise to achieve huge success.

Former Borders College plumbing student Ross Dickinson left school with no qualifications – he was later diagnosed with dyslexia.

He went on to launch his own business, and was working on a burst pipe one winter when he hit on the idea of a clamp that could quickly shut off the water supply, preventing flooding.

He launched Kibosh Ltd, and his range of domestic use clamps gained an international customer base with an estimated market potential of £200million.

The clamps are now attracting interest from the oil and gas, energy and industrial sectors.