Gillian Soukop, 23, Glasgow

Model Ü teacher

Those with finely manicured fingers on the fashion pulse will know that Emporio Armani (yes, that Armani) held a huge fashion show in Glasgow last month. It was its first in the UK for 10 years and Gillian Soukop was one of the elite models to take to the catwalk that night. She is well on her way to establishing herself in her ideal career; but it ain't modelling. Gillian, you see, would swap transatlantic flights and photo shoots for the 10-times table. She is training to be a primary school teacher. Which begs the question: why?

''I love it,'' she says simply. ''Kids are so enthusiastic at that age and are so willing to learn. Obviously you get a buzz from modelling and after a show you are on cloud nine; it's fantastic. But the real excitement comes with teaching.''

She has modelled all over the UK and as far afield as Berlin and Chicago. But it's not all jet-set glamour. ''It can be pretty dull at times,'' she says. ''Like the Armani show: I think I was there for about 13 hours, and sitting around for about seven of those doing not very much.''

Plus, Gillian says only a select few make their living from modelling and it doesn't provide her with an outlet for her creative and artistic impulses. That is where teaching comes in. ''I thought that being able to incorporate art with what I love, children, would work well together.''

Gillian hopes to fit in some modelling around teaching once she completes her teacher training at the Jordanhill Campus of Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but in the battle between the classroom and the catwalk, there can be only one winner.

''I would love to be able to do both, but if it doesn't work, teaching comes first,'' she insists.

Lynn Whitelock, 27, Edinburgh

Fashion industry Ü social care

''I really wanted to get into the fashion industry. But the more I did it, the more I found it to be a real cut-throat industry. A lot of it is really false,'' says Lynn Whitelock. This was her discovery after working for a designer in a New York boutique one summer. ''It was really bitchy and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be,'' she says.

So, after chancing upon an advert that screamed, ''Are you fed up with what you are doing? Do you want to make a difference?'', and realising she was fed up with fashion and definitely wanted to make a difference beyond which earrings her customers wore, Lynn entered into social care.

''It makes a whole difference to think that you are helping people and making a difference to their lives,'' she says. Lynn works alongside adults with learning disabilities, some of whom also have mental health issues, building them up and helping them gain the skills and confidence to do something as simple as going shopping. ''When you see that they've managed to do something or they've reached a personal goal, that is really rewarding and that's what I love about it.''

So would she consider returning to fashion, the career she dreamed about since she was a teenager? Not likely.

''It was mind-numbing. 'Would you like to buy earrings with that?' Is that really going to make a difference to anything? You are making money for a person who owns the thing, while you get paid rubbish money. You just don't use your brain. Whereas here it is so different and you never know what your day is going to entail.''

Charlie Gordon, 49, Edinburgh

Underwater photographer Ü social care

Charlie Gordon prowled the North Sea's murky depths for several years, taking photographs of oil lines and helicopter wrecks while his submarine mingled with whales and dolphins.

''If you were down in the submarine it was the reverse of a goldfish bowl with all the fish looking in at you,'' he says.

But after spending all his adult working life in the photography industry, Charlie found himself feeling like one of the shipwrecks he would come across. ''I was stagnating in what I was doing,'' he says. ''I wasn't getting much out of it.''

A chance suggestion from a friend led him to apply for a job in social work. Much to his surprise, he got it. ''And I'm really, really chuffed I made the change,'' he says excitedly. ''It's a breath of fresh air in my life.''

Charlie's job means he supports adults with learning difficulties, helping them with things we could consider simple, such as banking and enrolling in college courses. ''For example, I took one of my tenants to Dublin for the day in May on a cheap Ryanair flight. And he got a huge amount out of that.''

But does Charlie miss his old job beneath the ocean waves? Well, he talks fondly of watching the off-shore oil fields alight at night and of his love of photography, but he insists he will not be returning to his old profession soon. It just doesn't compare.

''The photographic industry is very fashion-driven and frivolous,'' he says. ''But here, you feel you are making a difference in people's lives.''

So, who needs dolphins?

Sarah McGee, 19, Edinburgh

Clinical support worker

Unlike the rest of the individuals profiled here, when Sarah McGee left school there was only one thing she wanted to do. ''Nursing has been a profession that I've always been interested in,'' she says. ''I thought, 'If people give us help, give them something back'.''

Sarah is giving a lot back, as a clinical support worker in operating department support, which is infinitely preferable to working on her local high street. ''I'd done part-time jobs in shops but it wasn't for me,'' she says. ''I didn't enjoy working in shops, folding clothes. I felt like I needed more hands-on jobs.''

Sarah was also spurred on by her friends leaving school and not following their dream jobs. ''Some were going to be lawyers and things like that, but none have really done what they set out to do. So that pushed me. I thought, I'm not going to be like that, I'm going to keep my head up and keep going'.''

After getting the various qualifications needed to become a nurse, she was offered a job in the theatres. She loves prepping the operating theatre and taking care of the patients, chatting to them and reassuring them before operations. ''It's a really good environment,'' she says. ''The theatre work is the best bit.''

And Sarah is very determined to make her way from the edges of the surgical process to taking part herself. ''You can eventually do surgical assistant courses where you can actually help in operations and be a major part of it with the surgeon,'' she says. And luckily this doesn't turn her stomach. ''I'm not squeamish at all. If you are going to be squeamish you aren't really fit for that job, are you?'' Thankfully, Sarah evidently is.

Marc Falconer, 31, Glasgow

Footballer to teacher

For most teenagers, choosing between a career as a professional footballer and one as a secondary school teacher is a bit of a no brainer. But Marc Falconer has done both, and his opinion may surprise you. ''I make more of a difference as a teacher than I did as a professional footballer,'' says the maths turned guidance teacher.

Marc was spotted playing centre forward while studying at Glasgow University. ''I got a phone call one day asking whether I wanted to go professional, full-time with Clyde. I jumped at the chance.'' After two years with the second division side, Marc was a prolific scorer in the reserves and played on several occasions in the first team.He admits he had to pinch himself at times

But when Clyde opened one of the first youth academies and Marc taught kids there, he began to consider life beyond the football pitch.

Marc soon came to terms with how short-lived a footballing career can be, so he went back to university, got his maths degree, and entered into teaching.

''And I really enjoy it. It is a rewarding job,'' says Marc.

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Before they were famous

Teaching and the health service have been great launchpads for these celebrities and famous people from both the past and the present.

- Nick Hornby

teacher to best-selling author

Before he reached world-wide stardom and had the likes of Hugh Grant acting in film adaptations of his books, Nick Hornby was a secondary school English teacher . His experiences in the classroom had a big influence and helped shape his first bestseller, Fever Pitch.

- Mahatma Ghandi

medicine to peace activist and international hero

The great man, credited with giving India independence by freeing it from the clutches of the British Empire, worked in the Ambulance Corps in both India and the UK providing emergency first aid

- Doc Holliday

dentist to gunslinger

Yes, he actually was a dentist. One of America's greatest wild west legends graduated and practised as a dentist in Philadelphia before heading west for the good of his health and entering into the history books

- Che Guevera

doctor to Cuban revolutionary

Before Che organised revolutions across South America and became immortalised via millions of student posters, songs and movies, he qualified as a doctor in Argentina

- Sting

teacher to rock star

The middle-aged rocker was a primary school teacher before picking up a bass guitar and conquering the world with his band, The Police, in the 1980s

What is the public sector?

Any part of Scotland which is funded and controlled by the government or local councils. This means everything from bin men and street cleaners to teachers and doctors work in the public sector.