My
Education
From the start of being at high school, which is when my education really
began, i have spent approximately thirteen (13) years in education. This page
will give you a small indication of what my educational background has been
like.
I Started in High School at St. Peters Church of England High School, in 1992,
where I received the same level of education as all of the other students, in a
variety of subjects. These subjects included the standard subjects such as
English, Mathematics, Science, and History. Other subjects also included
Relgious Education, which was a main subject with the school being a Church of
England school, and Foriegn Languages, which at the time was French. There was
also Information Systems, Business Studies, and a Electronics Design course.
While at high school, I took a few evening classes. These included the "RSA
Text Processing II part 1" course, and "City & Guilds Visual Basic Level
1". The visual basic course was particularly useful, and I learned a lot about
programming in Visual Basic. It really boosted my desire to become a
programmer, developing software.
Now, i can say that my education at High School was, without a doubt, not good
at all. This was why i decided to go to College, at Cauldon College, Stoke on
Trent, following High School in order to improve my GCSE's taken at High
School, and learn some new skills which I could use to get a job. So, in 1997,
I started college, on a course which i was told would include the retaking of
my GCSE's later in the year. Nearly a year had passed, and i had not really
improved my education on my current course, nor had I taken my GCSE's. It is
probably fair to say that I was not impressed with this course, and that I
ditched it at the end of the year.
The first year at college was rather pointless, and a year had passed without
contributing anything to my future. So, for my second year at college, I
decided to take a course dedicated to GCSE retakes. I took Mathematics, English
and Science. Science was my weakest point, but I wanted to give it a go. I did
successfully improve my GCSE results in Mathematics and English, gaining an
improved C grade in both subjects. I did not do so good in Science, but I didnt
expect to do so good in that subject.
Two years after starting at Caudlon College, Stoke on Trent, and passing my
English and Mathematics GCSE's, I wanted to improve on my computing, and
information technology. Looking at the full time courses available at the
college, I discovered that I had the neccessary grades to gain entry onto an
Advanced GNVQ Information Technology course from BTEC. The course lasted for
two years and covered a wide range of different aspects of computing, from
Binary calculations, to word processing, and software development. I completed
the two year course with a Distinction.
This gained me a pass if you like, to University. I enrolled onto a four year
Bachelors degree in Software Engineering. As could be expected, this degree was
a huge step above the GNVQ course at college, and involved a lot of hard work.
As time went on, I was learning more and more all of the time. The third year
of the degree involved going out into industry to get a job for a one year
placement, where I would need to be doing a computing related job. Baring this
in mind, I decided to start early, and started looking for jobs who would be
willing to take me on for a years placement. I started sending letters and CV's
in October 2002, near the beginning of the second year. Needless to say, I did
not have any luck, and ended up applying for jobs seeked by the University like
all other students later in the year.
One day, I received a phone call offering me a job interview for a job that I
had applied for. I immediately went out and bought a new suit for £100, because
I didnt have one for the job interview. A couple of days after the interview, I
received a phone call from the University, saying that the company who I had
the interview with was very impressed with me during the interview, and would
like to offer me the job. I was over the moon, and had a smile on my face for
several days. What made it even more special for me was that it was my first
ever job, and that I got a job after only my first interview. At the end of the
placement, I then realised that the job I was doing is what I would like to do
following university. This would be along the lines of a Website
Developer/Programmer.
After a year in work, and earning my first decent wage, I went back to
university. While at University in my final year, I continued to work for
Artera part time. This enabled me to still have a small income while completing
my degree. I chose my modules for my final year, which I went for an XML
module, a programming module, a module which teaches design patterns and also a
project management module. My thoughts on choosing these were that they would
help my prospects in getting a job after my final year at university. The
design patterns and project management modules were rather more difficult than
i had anticipated, however I really enjoyed the XML module, which would be the
main module which could help me.
I finally completed my degree in the summer of 2005. I gained an upper second
class degree, or some would refer to it as a 2:1. I was very happy with my
degree, and am happy that I chose to go down the education route for the first
part of my life. However, I have now come to the point in my life where I feel
that I have gained enough educational knowledge to be able to get my ideal job,
and that I should now get a job.
Amazingly, I applied for some jobs after completing my degree, and after only a
few weeks, I got a call to go for a job interview as a Junior Website
Developer. Once again, I was offered the job after just the first interview
that I went to following graduation. I can only think that I am extremely lucky
to have been given the opportunities that I have had, and look forward to a
decent future thanks to the years of education that I have gained.
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