Well for me it hasn't been submitting TMA's but the fact that since I have taken this course my life has changed big time. Before I had very little going for me but as soon as I passed my comptia a+ I found myself working for the NHS , and later even for my local council. Submitting the coursework was affected but I was installing servers , PC's , Routers, Switches. I always kept the latest updates for the course with me and applied what I had learnt reading them in my work. My wife is extremely happy with the way life has changed for us as my life before was very bad with me being a heroin addict. I got into this course because I liked computers and it was more of a hobby, however it helped me overcome addiction at the same time as open doors and today I am so happy and grateful because of it :)
-Nooh
Studying this course have open the door to computing for me, before taking this course I didn't know much about computer maintenance, now that I am studying the course materials it has open my eyes, and my mind to computers. I am very please to have this opportunity to study on-line with the Skillstrain Institute it has taken the pressure of going to college studying while trying to make a living. AS a new student what I have learnt so far has made me able to navigate more around the computer without fear. What I have achieve so far; I am very pleased. My children are computer literate and uses the computer to do their course work and their homework, but don't know how to implement or to navigate round the computer if a problem occurs, so what I have learnt so far I am able to show them how the computer is made up and how its put together, so while I am studying this course I am showing them things that I have studied so that they can have more insight in the future about computer maintenance and troubleshooting, we are all excited and looking forward for me completing this course.
This course has taken my computer knowledge to another level, the materials that I have received are excellent thank you very much.
-Donald
I recently had my yearly appraisal at work. Normally these are just run of the mill, 'you've achieved expectations'. However this time I mentioned that I was currently doing my A+ and would shortly be doing my N+ followed by CCNA and would be looking to either move on within the company or look elsewhere.
To my surprise my operations manager had put down that I had ‘exceeded all expectations' and he would like me to build a CCNA lab for our other engineers to use and achieve there CCNA if they wish to do so, whilst aiding them in there learning.
I am yet to even start networking and skills train is already opening more doors for me.
Thank you.
-Martin
Studying with skills train has totally changed my outlook on my career, I was previously working as an engineering technician basically testing IT equipment for 3 and a 1/2 years before deciding that a change was needed.
I left my job in September 2008 which was a major risk in itself due to the impending recession and other factors and decided that I was going to get qualified to help progress my career further.
I got in touch with skills train and signed up for 2 courses A+ and N+ as I felt these would suit my needs most. After leaving my job I did temporary work here and there whilst lookin for a field engineering job. Due to the fact of me having to work all kinds of different hours I found it hard to settle down and study, this was shown by the fact I only completed 5 TMAs in 4 months.
After applying for numerous jobs I finally received an offer from a computer company to work as an engineer starting on the 5th January, since then I have been working hard to settle down due to the fact I had some stability and not much to worry about and have since completed another 6 TMAs in the month of February and have completed the 1st section on my course.
Due to the skills I have learnt it has taken me a matter of only 2 months to be sent out on field calls for the company and have also taken over the duties of looking after the IT equipment of a company who is contracted to us. I have made progress a lot quicker than expected and I thank skills train for that.
-Joseph
I have finally finished part A of my CIW Unit 2 Javascript Fundamentals, I always struggled as a young lad with programming issues and finally on Saturday, after many months worrying about this unit, completed the assignment which had to be passed to the Tutor, and best of all it worked!!!
As well as completing this qualification I am also in the throws of completing other work to achieve my Teaching qualifications, this is taking up much of my time too and I am finding it extremely difficult to fit everything in as well as have a social life.
Despite this, once I receive my pass for my final assignment, will be ready to undertake the exam for the JavaScript Fundamentals side of the qualification, I have already passed the CIW Associate Examination which surprised me greatly and am hoping that I will surprise myself again when I enter for the second stage of the examination process.
-Darren
I am studying for C.I.W With the help of skill train giving me the skills I need. I have become self employed and run my own web design and host business.
-Roy
I have applied many, many aspects of what I am learning into my work environment. Recently, I adjusted the setup of our 4 WINS servers over 3 different physical locations. Based on my studies, I have now streamlined something that I was previously unaware needed adjustment. This has made my network much more efficient and my boss happy. Nice.
-Michael
I have studied with skillstrain for the last 6 years and first enroled on the PC installation & maintenance course where I gained Comptia A+ and N+ as well as City & Guilds and ACP certifications.
I enroled with the college again in September 2005 for the CCNA/CCNP course and in August 2006 I gained my CCNA certification.
In February 2007 I started a new career as a Cisco Network Engineer with a satellite communications provider where my working life has been transformed. I have kept up the studying and I have steadily been working through the CCNP course. Today I passed the CCNP ONT exam which now means I have gained CCNP certification. To say I am over the moon is an understatement.
The company I work for are expanding very quickly and are now one of the major players in the satellite communication industry. I now earn far more than I did before and receive double digit pay rises. I am going to the US next month to install a new network which will substantially increase our standing in the industry. I have even been to Monaco rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous and staying in 5 star hotels and all part of the job.
I could not have imagined all this 6 years ago and it goes to show that hard work can and does pay off.
Thanks to all at Skillstrain who have helped me over the years to really turn things around.
-Graeme
After trying for a while to kick-start a career in the IT industry and having no luck due to "lack of commercial experience" I decided to approach a small IT company and ask if there was a possibility of a voluntary position to gain experience.
The offer was accepted and 2 days a week I would be working for a company who specialise in pro open-source business solutions (Linux servers, Asterisk VoIP) and support all associated systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Hardware and Software).
After 2 weeks (4 days) I was offered a full-time paid position with the company and have accepted the position.
This has allowed me to put the skills I have learnt so far into practice as well as learn new skills and gain knowledge which is helping me with my studies.
-Timothy
This month I was able to finally put my knowledge gained from the CCNA course into practice. When my family are having computer issues they tend to give me a call and I turn up only to have connect them to the internet or update a device driver or another more trivial issue.
This time my mother and sister-in-laws whose internet connection I had previously set up with a wired connection had introduced a wireless router but could not connect through wireless at all and only the original laptop connected without the router would connect to the internet, despite both laptops creating a LAN with the router.
This was the first time I had needed to use my networking skills and I went into the routers homepage through HTTP and cloned my mother-in-laws laptop mac address to that of the router so they could get wireless access and set up wireless security on there laptops before saving it.
This worked and they can now enjoy wireless access through there router. They thanked me but about 2 days later they called to say they could not get access in the evening and I went round in the morning thinking of reasons that it would no longer work and loaded it up to find that it was working fine and had just been the ISP connection being down at the time they had tried it.
I did however get 2 cups of coffee and a warm thank you for my efforts but more than that walked away with a great deal of pride at finally using my knowledge to solve a problem out of the norm and enjoyed looking through the routers options.
-Steve
A little knowledge goes a long way. To the other end of the country in fact.
My 23 year old daughter phoned up from the other the other end of the country. She, and her boyfriend had been given a four year old computer. The computer had worked fine for a few days and then developed a fault which stopped it from fully booting up. Hence the phone call (and dad's know everything ..)
As chance would have it, I'd just been working my way through sections 3-5 of the Comptia book which dealt with errors, trouble shooting and beeps and all that. And you know what - it works! The step by step guide really does work! Twenty minutes later I'd come to the conclusion that there was a problem with the RAM, which after my daughter had 'wiggled it' worked properly (I think it's called a 'dry joint') and then I was able to identify the one long beep followed by three short beeps was a keyboard fault caused by a stuck key, caused by a three year old girl with 'sticky chocolate fingers'.
My daughter was mightily impressed. So was I... and boy, it certainly helps your confidence!
-Glenn
Well, it's been a tough 2 years with breaks in my studies for illness and relocation, but I've successfully got to the end of my course with just the exams to go. Time to revise like mad! My life has changed so much for the better since starting this course. When I started, I hadn't worked for 15 years because of illness. I am now self-employed as a web designer and making a living working from home. The course has given me the knowledge and confidence to do this. All the hard work has been so worthwhile.
-Jane
Just before November 2008, in the heat of the credit crunch one of my wishes was to see the recession period out without any major problems at work or with finances, but sadly my job was affected and I was out of work by the 7th of November. I began wondering what to do and how to get a job quickly because the job market was flooded with so many IT professionals who had been laid off from bigger jobs like financial banking IT jobs or jobs within the Law sector, these are people who had been on very good salaries and I just felt it would be so difficult getting a job ahead of these people but I had to do something still so I started applying for jobs. I would tactically avoid jobs that paid over £25k because I felt the demand would probably be overwhelming… how wrong I was!
A week later and I had probably done well over a hundred applications but had no serious feedback, it started becoming a worry. I worried so much that one of those days I fell asleep in the middle of the day – probably around 1pm, when I woke I went back to my PC, looked at my CV again, and found nothing significantly wrong with it except there was nothing about my CIW in it, went back to my PC, modified my CV, and logged into my online jobsite. First thing I saw was one financial banking role that had a lot to do with programming in Perl… This role was paying a base of £35k [Per Annum] and had many fringe benefits. Bearing in mind that I was on less than £21k [Per Annum] at the time (which was the largest amount of pay I had been on), I felt a bit intimidated but decided to apply all the same.
It was about 5 minutes after this application that my phone buzzed and it turned out to be the HR team from this bank, we went through a few questions and I was invited for an interview the very next day. They urgently wanted qualified starters because the bank had recently acquired a European bank and wanted to move it's IT operations to the UK. During the interview it felt like most of what they wanted to know was regarding the subjects that were treated during my CIW course and how comfortable I was with Perl and scripting. I was asked to start in the middle of December 2008 after my security and criminal check results had come through – it was awesome! Not only did I have a job, it was paying some good money too.
We have now completed the training and gone live, I've been on the job for a month or so and it doesn't get better than that. Looking back, Alex, who had no banking IT experience and didn't earn up to £22k a year now has a great job with loads of free perks and a wallet-gratifying salary. It has done a massive difference to my self confidence and I now compete at a high level. I know that the CIW experience has got something to do with this and I want to say thanks.
-Alexander
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