A careers fair for teenagers about “different paths” they can take after leaving school has shown how they don’t have to stick to a course if they change their mind.

A former student returned to Barnet and Southgate College, where the fair was staged, to explain about ending up in optometry and audiology after switching from product design.

Atef Ebrhimgeel is now store manager with Specsavers in High Barnet, 10 minutes from his old college.

He got a weekend job as a teenager as a dispensing assistant while studying for a degree in product design before getting a Masters in interior design.

The job was an eye-opener for Atef, which led him to change course and go into optometry instead.

He worked his way up to be a store manager in just two years, he told students, then qualified to become a partner in the company three years later. It took him just seven years from starting “as a simple dispensing assistant” to running the store.