Staff in the spotlight for British Science Week: Daniella Plummer

We spoke to Daniella Plummer, Head of School for Applied Science at Capital City College, to find out more about her role and her love for science.

To celebrate British Science Week, we sat down with Daniella Plummer, Group Head of School for Applied Science at Capital City College (CCC) to hear how her passion for her subject enables her to support students exploring the science sector.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

I studied molecular biology and genetics at the University of Hertfordshire and I really loved it, but I also discovered that I didn’t enjoy being in the labs and doing research. I preferred to be much more people-facing and wanted to get involved with communicating science. I got a job teaching at a college and absolutely fell in love with teaching Applied Science to BTEC students. 

My passion for the subject meant I was able to keep my students up to date about different aspects of science and let them know about different routes into science. After teaching for a few years, I progressed into managing science and joined CCC three years ago as a Curriculum Manager. I recently became Head of School for Applied Science, which means that I work across four of the college centres in Angel, King’s Cross, Tottenham and Enfield.

What do you like best about working at CCC?

I have to say that it’s the students! I love their enthusiasm and how friendly they are – and it’s lovely seeing them progress.

CCC also really nurtures their staff and that’s something I’ve really liked and benefited from. The students can see it too, as they see a lot of staff coming in as teachers and then progressing to become curriculum managers or heads of school. I really like the culture that the college has created because the students can see how we work our way up and gain more responsibility.

What do you like best about your role?

The thing that I love best about my role is that I get to support so many students from so many different backgrounds in learning about and exploring different avenues into science. When they step through the door, they’ve got this idea of wanting to be a scientist, but it’s such a broad term – and I love the fact that I get to help them discover what kind of scientist they want to be. There are still lots of traditional roles involving research, but there’s also science in the media, podcasts, and marketing to consider. 

Some students might be keen to work in science but lack the confidence in their abilities or grades, and I really enjoy sharing with them the different ways of progressing and working towards a career in science.

What’s exciting about pursuing a career in science?

I think it’s exciting that we can see science in a lot of modern-day problems, such as climate change, and so we have a lot of students wanting to go into marine biology or ecology because they can see the issues and concerns.

Science is a constant and it’s ever-expanding. There are opportunities coming up in new areas such as genetic engineering, AI technology and data science that students can see and I think that makes it a really exciting area to be starting out in.

What challenges do science students face?

The sheer amount of jobs on offer can be overwhelming and I think that one of the biggest challenges for students is working out where they want to go and how they’re going to get there. For example, a biomedical science student might automatically think that they’ll end up as a biomedical scientist, so they’ll only really look into or think about that specific role. In reality, they could also go into so many different roles such as working in hematology or becoming a genetic counselor -and that’s where we’re really able to provide support. I’m always keen to remind students that there’s so much more you can do within a sector and there are so many different routes you can take. 

What makes Capital City College’s science programmes stand out?

Firstly, as a college, we’re incredibly well-resourced and our labs are all kitted out with current industry-standard equipment. We’ve got 15 labs at our Angel centre that we’re constantly expanding as well as labs at our centres in King’s Cross, Tottenham and Enfield.

We also organise a lot of talks led by professionals from different science-based industries for the students so they can get more information about different roles. I think that we’re particularly good at helping students recognise their transferable skills as, a few years down the line, they may discover that they want to explore a different route. We can highlight the skills they’ve acquired from a science background, such as problem solving, analytical skills, project management and communication.

Finally, I work very closely with employers to make sure that we’re keeping in line with the industry standards that they want and we shape our curriculum accordingly. We’re very transparent with the students and we’re able to tell them what employers are looking for and how they’ll develop those relevant skills while studying with us. 

Are you curious about working in science? Check out our blog on 10 Fascinating Careers in Science.

If you’re interested in studying a science-related subject, take a look at our wide range of Science and Forensics courses and apply today!

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