Lots of achievers, including my grandfather who was professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, even though he never went to University himself (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battiscombe_Gunn ).
But I will write about my mother, Freda (Pilcher) Gunn ( Pilcher-358 ). Her mother worked in the kitchens of various "stately homes" until she marreid, and her father drove a double decker London bus. When schoolchildren were 11, they took an exam which determined if they would / could go to grammar school (= academic) or trade school. She did well enough to get a scholarship to grammar school. But her parents said "What use is Latin of Mathematics if there is another depression? If you have a trade you will always be able to get a job". So she went to trade school to learn to be a dressmaker. At 14 she was working in a ladies' dressmaking shop. Then WWII started, and women's clothing was rationed. The ladies' dressmakers closed, and she went to work in a children's dressmaing shop. Then they were rationed too, and those shops closed. So much for "Always find a job if you have a trade"! She spent the rest of the war doing "war work" which (with hindsight) was assembling radar units (very secret at the time).
After the waar was over there was a shortage of teachers because so many of the (mostly male) teachers had been killed. And new laws (passed before the war, but put into effect after the war) required children to remain in school for several more years. The Government instituted an Emergency Teacher Training program. Admission to the program was just based on passing an exam. You didn't have to have completed grammar school. It also trained teacher much more quickly, in two years.
Freda applied, passed the exam, and trained to become a teacher. She taught in "Infant schools" (students aged 4 to 7) in England until I was born. After we emigrated to the US, and both my sister and I were in school, she started substitute teaching (New York State did not recognize her British credentials), and then taught full time in private schools, until she died at the early age of 51.
Given her family background, becoming a teacher was a major achievement.