A man who arrived in the UK with little English and no qualifications has praised the part colleges play in transforming lives.

Dilon Beqa came to England from Kosovo 18 years ago, signed up to study business, went on to land the deputy transport manager job at the London 2012 Olympics and is now a lecturer at Barking and Dagenham College.

Dilon, speaking during national Colleges Week, said: “I arrived in the UK without any support network, but when I joined college as a student, suddenly I had people that believed in me, that never ran out of patience, that went out of their way to help me and really instilled confidence in me.

“I felt it was really important to give that back to my community. I love being able to help our students and see how well they progress.”

After qualifying in all his courses, Dilon went on to study business and financial services at university before landing the Olympics job.

After 2012, he started to look at teaching. He started out as an agency teacher before finding out about a job opening at Barking and Dagenham College.

He is now business lecturer and career ready coordinator at the college.

Five years ago, as part of Dilon’s role at the college, he helped set up the career ready programme which provides students with interview practice, help finding jobs and getting business mentors.

Dilon said: “This is just one of the examples of how colleges go out of their way to help students.

“There are a lot of things that colleges do that people don’t realise and that just aren’t available to students in other educational settings. I’m just so pleased I get to be part of my students’ journeys.”

Tim Carey, the college’s business enterprise and skills development lead, said: “Dilon is a fantastic example of what a person can achieve.

“He really is an inspiration and has always been so enthusiastic, positive and passionate about what he does.

“He’s universally liked by staff and students and I’m glad he’s part of the Barking and Dagenham College team.”