Living on the Edge: How a Microsoft apprenticeship helped a former gang member turn his back on the streets

When one of Uwadiae's friends was beaten up, they retaliated. The tit-for-tat violence resulted in another member of their gang being stabbed in the leg at a party. Uwadiae suddenly didn't feel safe unless he was carrying a knife.

'Your character changes, you're more rebellious, more of an individual, less likely to listen. You're just an outlaw. There were moments I wondered what I was into. One day one of the older gang members came to our estate with a knife and started stabbing people, shouting: 'Everyone's got to learn they have to be invincible.' Or you get shot at, which happened once or twice.'

The 'really dark' situation he found himself in resulted in expulsion from school at 15. After that, Uwadiae 'pressed the button'.

'Teachers told me I would end up in prison and that I wouldn't amount to anything unless I stopped. There was a downward spiral that was happening,' he says.

Ironically, violence had pulled him into the life of a gangster, and it was violence that was to pull him out again. Uwadiae hit someone with a bottle and robbed them. The victim's brother got involved and demanded money, which Uwadiae handed over. He admits it could have been a lot worse.

'I was scared straight,' he says.

His sister was involved in the local church and, not wanting to go back to the streets, Uwadiae joined her. 'I changed. I had joined a loving community of people who cared about me. That was radically different from the cold and hard street life, where no one really cares about you. I was as obsessed with the church as I was with the streets.'

He admits to not being a religious person but at that time he believed there was a God, who set him on the right path. Soon after, he went back to college and by chance saw that Microsoft partner apprenticeship poster.

'I was lucky I found a way out. I was never stabbed or shot, and the scar tissue from the streets is what makes it really hard to leave that life. I feel like l have lived three lives.'