Since the start of the year I told myself I would really put much
more effort into my course, and web design as a whole. I have
since obtained work re-designing a website which is now 90% complete.
I spent approximately 15 hours on this site during January.
During this time I was also working full-time as I always do
as a technician for an Access Control Company, but I also
have two more web design projects in the pipeline for the
next few weeks, mainly as a result of the improvements I
have recently made to my personal website.
Finally, and possibly most importantly I have completed
all of the third book of my CIW Foundations course. I read
through the book twice and completed all of the TMAs –
of which I achieved high marks for all. I have been learning
about web design for many years but in the last 4-5 weeks I
have really stepped up a gear in the subject, I have worked
harder than I ever have done on website related work and
study and have learnt that when you set goals and you focus
on them goals daily and consistently work towards achieving
them it can be done. And so I shall continue as I mean to go
on as the satisfaction of any achievement is highly desirable.
And when you are achieving goals it becomes more like fun
and less like work, I just wished I had this strong desire, drive
and determination inside of my much sooner.
-Gary
I came to the UK in May 2006 and started work almost straight away. Despite this every day I would think about studying to better myself. One day I have received SkillsTrain booklet by post and that time I have decided and I join SkillsTrain in April 2009. I wanted to further my career.
I started first with the A+ and after this I have finished N+ and now I am studying Cisco -CCNA. I have found that ALL of the tutor team are really helpful as sometimes I can't quite understand some topics. I know I have got a good and kind tutor team so I'm not afraid to ask for help. They are always good with me. When I call them for a hint they straight away send me mail with extra help on the Student World website. Now I can sort-out any number of small problems in my computer and I can help my friends as well. I learnt many things from skills-train. Really my computer skills are better than ever before and I will achieve my goal in future and find a better job in IT.
-Jignesh
I have helped at least three families in my close, from making a new computer for them to fixing and upgrading a couple of old ones! It was very interesting and helpful to have the chance of putting what I have learnt over the past year into practice! Everyone including myself, were over the moon with the results! This would never have been possible before I'd started the course! Living and learning!
-Neil
I repaired a condemned laptop which a certified repairer couldn't do.
The owner brought the laptop to me saying she needs my assistance to get a new one but I insisted she told me what the fault of the old one was. So she then started saying it started from network failure to constant ejection of the CD tray to no application opening and sudden black out of the screen.
I asked her what the repairer did & told her before bringing it to me then I noted some points and told her to give me 3 days that her laptop will be back to new.
I started work on it by using an external drive to back up as much useful information as possible then I proceeded by tackling the network problem. Noting seems to work properly anymore so, I did a system restore. Most application went back to normal but the network problem persisted. I rolled back the network driver but still no good. A thought came to my head to run a full system scan and on doing that, I found out that the OS (vista) was corrupt due to some system files missing. I knew the only thing left for me to do was re-install the OS but instead of installing the old OS (vista), I decided to install windows 7. I checked for the compatibility and found out that it can be supported so, I proceeded to installing windows 7 on the laptop.
After installation, tested all its features and functions to check for no issues and it was all perfect.
I charged NOTHING but I received a kiss on ma cheek and a BIG THANK YOU.
I learned that not how much people pay for a service brings happiness but the satisfaction of a job well done both with the client and to yourself.
ASID is a very useful procedure to me accomplishing this task because I didn't jump into a sudden conclusion but tactically approached the problem and it yielded a great result.
-Adetunji
As a result of this course I have assisted at least four colleagues with various IT problems successfully. These range from upgrading RAM or HDD's to virus removal and a particularly troublesome wireless network from Sky. Using the information gained from this course all these problems were sorted easily and details documented for future reference.
-George
2009 turned out to be a fantastic year, due, in part to my Skills Train course. In April my wife gave birth to our first child.
Yet despite this limiting the amount of time I had to study I already had the confidence from what I'd already learned throughout my first 15 months with Skills Train to start my own web design business.
I had already started creating a few website for people I knew and gradually started to grow ever more busy and in July I took the important step of buying my own commercial property to work from.
Because of my decision to take this course the recession has been kind on me and provided the opportunity to purchase the property at a low price compared to those prior to the recession. This opportunity wouldn't have been available without taking the decision to enrol on the course in January 2008 in order to leave my previous employment with a view to becoming self-employed one day.
I have since realised that dream and now, and with my new business plus the joys of having our first child 2010 looks set to be a very good year indeed!
If anything, one downside of 2009 being so "busy" was my lack of spare time to continue my course (my last marked assessment was in July!) but I have once again started submitting TMA's and look forward to progressing through the latter parts of my course.
It is so good to learn that Skills Train are able to offer me a much needed extension to my course time in order to complete the whole course and hopefully gain all the qualifications it offers. Without this course I would probably still be in the same job I was in previously which, although enjoyable, wasn't exactly what I wanted to achieve in life.
With Skills Train I have been able to realise my dream of owning my own business! Thank You, thank you, thank you!
-Craig
Unce upon a time.... The whole story begun in 2006. I started studying with skillstrain while I was doing the night shift at one well known delivering company when I realized that I am not able to study normally by attending courses. But why did I decide to study? Well, I used to work as a waiter at different places around the Europe (Germany, Cyprus, on a ship providing cruises to tourists). My profession was in Gastronomical industry and I decided to change it because of huge interest for computers. In 2007 I bought my first laptop and I got into it very fast because of time I spent on it. I was evolving very fast so I decided to start studying with a view to become an IT professional in the future. I got married the same year , but it was not a problem – my wife supports me in every way till now... ( only one thing she hates is when I m playing Tribalwars :) ). By the end of the year 2008 we decided to leave U.K because of a certain discomfort and home sickness of my wife which was good for us in order to look at the new challenges in front of us. I finished A+ course with certificate and very good rates and now I am looking forward to pass N+ and CCNA exam in spring 2010. This knowledge has helped me to begin new carrier in IT as Administrator at the Computer and Networking Center at the University here in Poland. It was quite difficult at the beginning because I am Slovak by nationality but I am improving my abilities very fast, what is a vital point it this sector which does dynamically changes all the time. When I finish this course I want to improve my skills in unix, Linux systems and I think I will do it for sure with Skillstrain because of nice way of studying and help from the tutors I always May count on. Recently I got a job offer from an international IT company which was quite interesting as far as pay and experience is concerned. Sure, I will have to decide with help of my wife :). I wish good luck to all of the students at Skillstrain. With every submitted tutor marked assignment you are one step forward to a new carrier, believe me, even if it is really difficult sometimes to study when you get back from work. But half an hour at least counts a lot every day. Thank you. Happy Xmas.
-Dusan
I am 41 years of age and a mother of two lovely boys. I work as a Legal Secretary in a firm of solicitors. I have always been passionate of IT and never had the opportunity to study this properly. About a year ago, despite all the odds, I decided to take on a course but needed something that would adapt to my lifestyle. I went on to enquire with a number of IT training companies and I decided to register with Skills Train as they ticked all the boxes; they had a good reputation, I could study in my own time and pace, their fees were quite reasonable and they offered online support and live training. I have now successfully completed my COMPTIA A+ with Skills Strain.
Although I had proven general basic skills in IT, this was not clearly recognised in my workplace, but the course with Skills Train had boosted my confidence and vastly expanded my knowledge, skills and ability in IT. My employers could now notice that I had indeed proven IT qualities and that I had become quite competent in this field, and staff always came to me when they had IT related problems. My involvement has ensured the smooth day to day running of the business and has helped in cutting down costs. I informed them that I was taking further studies with Skills Train and despite the credit crunch, I have received a pay rise and I am now also the IT Supervisor of the firm. I now look forward to completing the COMPTIA N+ and can't wait to reap the benefits!
Thank you very much Skills Train!
-Nadia
I was a security officer in one of the biggest warehouses in north west of England. Nothing to be proud of - 12 hours shift spent on endless ventures trough gloomy floors full of loud machinery and underpaid workers struggling to keep up with the Christmas orders. They didn't seem to notice a silent spectator, day dreaming about seeing his family back in Poland on Christmas Eve... I couldn't think of anything else but I wasn't complaining because that thought kept me going. Even then I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford presents for my children and wife - present they deserved without a smallest doubt. I couldn't ask for a better family, my youngest daughter just turned 4 and every single time I spoke with her on the phone she was so eagerly asking "Daddy, when you come home? You don't have to buy me any presents, just come home please!" and I couldn't say anything more, my voice was shaking and eyes watering. Even when my wife took over the phone I could still hear her in the background screaming "Daddy, I love you!", I could also hear some lovely mumbles of my son, 11 months old Adam.
Over my three years abroad I learned to accept that I'm here to fight for better future of my children but being so far away from home was never as difficult as now, when every family was spending time together preparing for Christmas. And there was me, a guy who could barely afford a plane ticket to Poland, could it be even worse? Yes, it could... It was suppose to be another common day when suddenly my boss called me for a briefing, he was nervously saying something about "money saving programme", "credit crunch" and by the time I've noticed what was this about he simply said "Thank you for your cooperation Dave!" - Simple as that, I was fired...
World seemed to collapse - I had to forget about presents and even visiting my home. How could I break three little hearts by simple "I can't come this year"? I was hopeless and the only solution that came to my mind was to... sink my problems in few pints of beer. In a pub I met an old friend, with whom I haven't spoken for ages. Now we had plenty of time to catch up, I told him about my family and a situation I found myself in, I also told him about my Web Designer studies with Skills Train and then, to my amazement, he said that he might be able to help. You see, recently he became a quite successful personal trainer and he came to work with few people owning their own businesses - some of them were looking for a way to expand them using the Internet but they had no clue where to begin. Skills Train showed me exactly how to deal with that kind of tasks and my friend was so convinced about it that he offered to refer me to his clients. After about a week I got few phone calls which turned into 4 websites orders. At first I wasn't sure if I'll be able to design something that will suit the taste of my clients but they liked the website templates I made whilst studying so honestly I didn't had much to do! In few days I earned enough money to buy presents for my children and a beautiful ring for my wife and the orders keep on coming! Thank you Skills Train! ...and thank you to my old friend!
-Dawid
Going back to the 20th May 2005, I remember signing up to the Cisco Netpro NetMaster Course which comprised of the Cisco CompTIA N+, Cisco CCNA and the Cisco CCNP courses. At first I was apprehensive about undertaking such a long term commitment and unsure about whether I had the skills, knowledge and drive to succeed on a long distance learning course, but sure enough I willingly signed up to see where it would take me. I was also quite curious about how the course would unfold and whether my study skills were up to scratch for such a long term challenge.
Within the next few weeks my course material began to arrive and I got down to some serious study initially I found that some of the course material I had already covered in previous computer courses I had been on but this simply reinforced my existing knowledge and helped me get through the first few assignments so I was pleased with my early results. My tutor team were very helpful during this early stages and always gave me positive encouragement to proceed to the next level.
Things were now always plain sailing and a storm was brewing. I hit problems in the early stages of the Cisco CCNA course under subnetting and certain maths calculations. My brain was hurting at this stage and I found it really tough getting down to study after doing a full-time job as well. However, once again the tutor team came to the rescue and provided feedback which greatly helped and then the penny dropped and I found my confidence level soared again. What I began to realise was it is no use trying to cram everything into your brain and get stressed out. What I needed to do was plan and have periods of relaxation to reflect on what I was trying to learn and it was only then that things started to fall into place.
Now I am continuing my studies and looking back have learned a great deal not just about the content of the course but also you learn about yourself and what you are capable of. I believe everyone has different styles of learning and for me I've started to make my own notes of my interpretation of complex theories and concepts which means it helps me understand them better. I think the role of a good student is to always evaluate the situation. You will make mistakes of course, but then learn from those mistakes and then practise what you have learned to improve yourself for your future.
In my conclusion my course has not given me a huge pay rise or allowed me to rise up in my current employment. What it has done though is given me a sense of worth and allowed me to learn about my own capabilities and limitations and also to increase my confidence in using information technology. This newly found confidence has also affected other areas of my life and helped to improve those too. I would urge others to undertake these courses to improve yourselves especially in today's current economic climate where your skills are now judged to be more important for the world of work. My perception is education is invaluable in whatever media or capacity and can change the way we work, how we live and also change the world.
-Simon
Having only began my SkillsTrain course in August, I have yet to reap any financial rewards from it. But it has given me a goal to achieve in life. That is a wonderful gift to have, when your life seems to be going nowhere for a period of time.
In Christmas 2007 I was sacked from a job at local garage. It wasn't a career for the future, but it was a job none the less. Losing is was a blow to my confidence, and my motivation suffered for this. For the next 18 months or so I went back to doing what I had done previously in my life. Looking after my mother who suffers from Epilepsy and has trouble moving about because of arthritis, and other issues. This is a very fulfilling task in my life which I do with pride, but it is very lonely, and can make you very feel alienated from the rest of the world. It became very depressing for me, seeing my friends all doing something with their lives and having paths to take. My life had halted. It was going nowhere. I tried applying for local jobs, but I had very little feedback. A couple of interviews, never lead to getting back into the workforce though. I had one job lined up. The interview was a success, and I was asked to back for a second interview. My luck was against me however. My car had decided to blow up. This is not an exaggeration, the engine blew up when I was driving home one night. It cost me the potential job, money, but more frustratingly, time. The car was off the road for several months. I couldn't afford to pay for the repairs in one payment. I paid it over a period of time, during which the MOT and Tax also ran out, so that was more money and more time spent waiting in frustration. During this period I was 19 to 20 years old.
More time passed, I had my car back, but still no real direction in life.
My family was putting pressure on me to find a “proper” job. Clearly thinking I was happy to do what was perceived as relatively nothing for the rest of my life. This lead to me being cut off from a large part of my family. I only had my mother and her parents (my grandparents) to stand beside me.
I'd seen the SkillsTrain advert amongst other training agencies on TV quite a bit. It had never really occurred to me to apply to any of them. I did some research on the internet, read about how it works and then applied very soon after. I didn't think much of it for a while, then one day I came home after being out with a friend, and mother greeted me at the door with the phone in her hand. She said “It's someone about training”. The penny didn't drop until a few seconds later when I spoke to the gentleman on the phone. My interview was arranged. It all went very well. Now 4 months later, I'm enjoying the course. Never been so happy to read and learn new things. It has given me renewed motivation in life and I am determined to make it a success. Christmas 2009 for me, will be so much more appreciated now. I feel like my life has a direction and I can achieve in life. I'm now 21 years old and the happiest I've been since I was 16. Thank you to the people at the SkillsTrain for providing me with this opportunity.
-Simon
I received the next part of my course two weeks ago, of which I intend to crack down and study once I have finished my first exam, which is tomorrow morning. Two books of around 300 pages should keep me busy over Christmas. So, how is the Skills Train making my Christmas better? By giving me a perfectly valid excuse to just crawl up into my study and hide from the family for a couple of hours by diving into my books and keeping out mischief.
Aside from that, I will know this Christmas that I am one step closer to being a fully certified CIW Professional by having finished one of my examinations, ready to complete the next one in the new year. I'm sure that's a good enough reason to raise a glass of Bucks Fizz on Christmas morning too.
Merry Christmas everyone!
-Mathew
I joined SkillsTrain around the beginning of the year. The absolute freedom to study when ever and where ever I want, gave me the opportunity to train for skills on my terms. But if and when some difficulty arose, I still had the freedom to contact SkillsTrain from time to time.
I was employed as a receptionist in a prestigious poker club and for some time, I contemplated the idea of furthering my career by doing a course in either Accountancy or Book Keeping. When I told my parents they said: "Why don't you do a course in something you love and are familiar with, like IT?"
So I enrolled on a CCNP course with SkillsTrain. I received a very cool looking hand bag that could fit my study material perfectly and so I also started dress to more formal. A few months later, I was given the opportunity to be the Network Administrator of the club! It was very clear, that I got this promotion by studying with SkillsTrain.
As a result of this promotion, I was able to save a whole lot of money. My wife and I will be moving into our own apartment in a great neighbourhood on the 15th of December, just in time for Xmas! This Christmas will definitively be one to remember, thanks to SkillsTrain!
-Steven
|
