Thaddeus: From CTK to Town Planner

Next time you catch a train at London Bridge or even walk down a street, former CTK student, Thaddeus, may have had a hand in making your journey possible.

Thaddeus has previously been part of some impressive projects at Network Rail. “I was there for 2 years as a Land Consultant.” He worked on the Thames Link project, which included the huge renovations happening at London Bridge Station as well as working on upgrades at St John’s Station.

He is currently a Property Surveyor for a practice called Lambert Smith Hampton after working there for 3 years and 6 months. “If a client has land and issues with planning permission, we get that for them or advise them on how to go about getting it granted. We offer the whole planning lifecycle.”

Thaddeus studied his A Levels at CTK College before getting a place on the Town Planning course at Newcastle University. He recently returned to his former College to share his story with our current students. “I offered to come in because it’s something I was interested in doing, giving something back to the College because it helped me.”

“The programmes outside of the main curriculum such as IT skills were really helpful and there was also really good support outside of usual college hours. My teachers went beyond just academic stuff, the teachers were approachable.”

Thaddeus had plenty of useful advice to offer our current students planning their university applications. He said: “It is worth from an early stage trying to get an idea of where you’d like to see yourself in a work sense. It’s crucial to have an idea of what jobs are available to you with the degree you choose. The economy is much less forgiving than before, in the past just having a degree was enough to get you into a half decent job, now there’s a lot more competition.”

In an increasingly crowded job market, Thaddeus makes a valuable point about the importance of planning ahead and doing everything you can to gain skills to make you stand out to employers in the future, and make the most of your time at CTK Sixth Form, university and beyond.