Identical twins Ramon and Josef Gasewicz left work on a building site to take up places on a popular-music foundation degree course, writes Tony Tysome.
Before joining the course at Colchester Institute, they had almost no formal qualifications or music training between them. Their only experience was playing guitar in their band, the Goose Brothers.
Now each has a foundation degree under his belt and is studying for a music honours degree.
Ramon left school with no qualifications after moving to the UK from Argentina during his secondary schooling. He said: "Until we did this course, our only prospect was working on a building site or in a factory.
Now we are looking to become music teachers or to work in multimedia."
Josef, whose only entry qualification was an art A level, said: "We did not know whether we would be up to that level of study. It was a gamble, because we had to take out student loans to join the course. But it has paid off."