Hi,
I'm currently studying Website Design and Management.
I joined skills train after doing my work experience and found out that web design is definitely for me!
Since then I've been going along doing a little bit every day. Which I'm sure we've all found can be quite hard sometimes especially after a stressful day but we do it because we all want to reap the rewards of our hard work at the end of it all.
My hard work has already started to pay off; I've recently just got a job as a secretary not my dream job but it's for the director of a media company. One of the reasons why I was accepted for an interview was because I was undergoing this course and would be able to help out during projects, which I was over the moon about as well as this I will also be getting in-house training so I will be getting good experience as well as knowledge to move more quickly through my course.
Woop woop! I love it when you start to see progression.
-Milliemae
Where to start…..?
Start of 2006 I broke my finger (don't ask how), which gave me two weeks off work not a great start to the year right? But within those two weeks I had a chance to think about my life and see where I was heading, the long term didn't look so good, I being working in retail since I left college and I hated every min of it.
I was good with computers and I understood how they worked with out any training, so I did a bit of research about system course like Cisco, Microsoft MCSA/MCSE and so on. I call round organizations that where offering these courses and about the same time I saw a TV commercial, what do you know its Skillstrain so I gave them call and arranged for a meeting for the next day.
When the course adviser came round we started talking about what I was looking for and how I thought it would change my career prospect. One question he asked CHANGED everything, the question he asked was what did I study in college, answer 'Graphic Design'. So he suggested the CIW Website Design Manager. Perfect which is what I always what I wanted to get into and with the knowledge of design it was ideal. With the other organizations they didn't really bother ask me the questions or even seemed like they cared just as long as I signed up. With flexible study time and the option of monthly payments this was the chance to turn my life round.
Coming near to 2009 I've just started working as a free-lance graphic/web designer (using both my skills from college and Skillstrain) and I'm already booked up until April (magazine ads, websites and other print work) doing what I love and on top of that I've had a few interviews in the industry.
So thanks to Skillstrain and that one question the future looks bright.
-Ergun
I wish I could say I have found a better job, been promoted or been given a pay-rise but I found out 3 weeks ago, that due to the credit crunch I am being made redundant at the end of the year. I have worked for the company for 4 and a half years so it came as a massive shock and completely out of the blue, especially when a few months ago there was talk of me being promoted to an IT based position and now those dreams have been shattered….
But its not all gloom and doom, thanks to SKILLS TRAIN I have being doing the CIW Web Masters course for 18 months now and I know that will keep me going during this very difficult time. It keeps me focused on the goal of being a web professional with an exciting and rewarding career in something I enjoy.
Recently on the plus side I have had more spare time and I have devoted that time to entering the ICT Competition 2008 which I am so excited about. I am so glad I entered this year as last year I let myself down by not entering. I am so lucky SKILLS TRAIN has given me so much confidence over the past year which has grown and grown. That confidence has inspired me to enter and do something positive for my future.
This Christmas I have also felt very competitive especially when it comes to the Christmas games of Pacman and Invaders, I have massively improved since last year and have learned some tricks along the way. Although I haven't got a chance of winning at the games it has made this year a lot of fun and has taken my mind of the fact I won't have a job in a few weeks and has kept my spirits high.
I would like to wish SKILLS TRAIN, the TUTOR TEAM and all my fellow students a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best of luck in 2009!
-Lisa
This Christmas is going to be better for me thanks to Skillstrain because I am in a far better frame of mind than I was this time last year. Even though I was already enrolled in the Webmaster Design Course this time last year was in a negative place personally. I was having problems at
work and had major issues with my boss. So much so that I decided I could no longer work alongside him and demoted myself from Service Manager and went back on the road as a Service Engineer in November 2007. Even though I was out of the office and back on the road I was still uneasy. My biggest problem with my boss when I was Service Manager was he was cheating the engineers out of overtime and bonus payments. Now I was an engineer again myself, how could I be sure he wasn't cheating me out of the same payments? So in February 2008 I took a considerable pay cut and joined a rival company.
From November 2007 until July 2008, whilst back as a service engineer I was working all over the UK which in turn meant my skillstrain studies suffered as a consequence. Even though I signed up for the course as a means to find a better career for myself, the job I was currently doing was preventing me from putting in the necessary hours required to make any sense of the course work. Due to the amount of miles I was driving every week - usually in excess of 1500 miles - by the weekend I was too exhausted to read. I felt like I was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone and my current job was the demon that was holding me back, keeping me trapped in a rut of endless traffic jams and constant fear that I was being cheated out of hard earnt overtime.
On 28th July 2008 fate dealt me a better hand, though at the time I didn't think so. You see on that day I was involved in a car accident. It wasn't a serious accident and no one was badly hurt though I found out a week or so after that I had damaged some discs in my back that have kept me off work ever since. People are killed or injured every single day in serious traffic accidents so I think myself fortunate that I walked away unscratched. Due to the nature of my back problem I have been told that I May not be able to return to my current job due to its physical demands. In the grand scheme of things I don't feel that is a bad thing. I've used my time off work to catch up on and make good progress with my course. My TMA's have been consistently good and I have a far better understanding of my course and its content than I did this time last year. In early November I spent 2 weeks on holiday in the USA. I spent a week in Los Angeles with cousins I have there and then spent a week touring Arizona on my own. There is something quite empowering about travelling alone, especially when you are on another continent thousands of miles from home. Memories of driving through landscapes I'd dreamt about since childhood in an open top car will
keep me going for years to come. I went hiking in the Arizona deserts and being in that environment on my own gave a hunger for more. The only way I am likely to feed that hunger is by improving my career prospects and making my own luck. Nothing worth having comes easy and I know from past experiences that I have to work harder to make things happen for me.
This time last year I felt my life was stagnating and I couldn't see any way to break free from the shackles that held me back. This Christmas though there is a definite positive vibe in my life and I know that 2009 holds so much more for me and the only path worth taking is not marked "easy street".
-Mark
Studying with SkillsTrain will make this Christmas better than last because it has given me a new future, having lost my job and opening the door to a new and exciting career.
-Petra
I never thought in a million years I would be able to do this course!!!! Well I have shocked myself, as I have moved house twice while studying and that is not easy!! And have also lost 3 members of my dad's family and that has been exhausting time.
It has been a testing time for me over the last year as I have had times were I have thought about given up!! but then I get this great feeling and I tell myself that I am doing this course to learn and to achieve this qualification to better my life for my family!! I have learnt how to understand the internet and not to panic like I used to when I first started this course! I am proud to say that I am confident with my pc and know what is wrong and try and mend it myself and I have helped friends with certain issues. I have a long way to go yet but I am studying at a pace I can cope with as I have a part time job and also look after my 2 children, I will carry on enjoying my course and work harder knowing at the end of this course I will have a great career!!
-Caroline
I have only just started my course but am already very excited about it, I have been in a dead end job for 6 years I am now 25 years old and am enjoying my new course although it is a bit demanding for me but all the help I need is at hand. I can't wait to complete my course and reap the rewards of my study with a new career with great earning potential.
-Andrew
Studying with SkillsTrain is going to make this Christmas even better than the last………as despite the current inclement financial situation gripping the World Markets I am filled with those most Christmassy of feelings; comfort & Joy; since I know that I am working towards a most valuable qualification that will set me on the path to a brighter and more secure future for my family. As the ultimate provider for my wife and child there can be no better feeling!
-Neil
For me, if I had an opportunity to thank every staff member and teaching staff of skills train everyday I really would, because skills train has defined what I am today.
Before skills train, I was just a regular student, studying economics. I had an idea of what I wanted to do after university, and after about a couple of years later I was looking to establish an internet based business. I must say, economics is a great subject, but it does not fully equip me with what I need for my future. So at that time my life was this, I would go university, study, and come back home and nothing new to look forward to or not exciting and this continued every Christmas. Every Christmas, I would just sit, though happy about my gifts, but my mind would always ponder about how would my future look like?, what do I do?, where do I go?, how would I start?, and as Christmas moved from year to year, I still had no answer.
But in one day, all of this changed. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, May 2008 actually, a sales man knocked on my door, I was reluctant at first to open the door, but then I did and unaware to me I had just opened a whole new dimension, a whole new vision, a whole new reel for my life.
I remember he walked into my sitting room, smiling, and welcoming. He sat down, and then he asked me what I was doing with my time? I told him I was studying economics, and then he said do you know what you want to do after university?, at this point I gladly told him. He paused for a minute, picked up his folder and opened it, at then I thought “hmm... whatever he tries to sell am not going to buy”, then he started to explain how businesses' employ people that have skills, he mentioned different kinds of IT skills and how important they were, but then he said “I think I know what is best for you”.. And immediately I became curious; curious at that fact that, a stranger would walk into my house, sit down, listen to me talk and then say “I think I know what is best for you”. I sat up straight and looked straight into his eyes, like I was five years old and expecting a gift. Then he said “have you ever heard of e-commerce/project management”, I quickly said NO.
This super sales man, I like to call him now, explained in detail everything about e-commerce and immediately it all felt right. My dream, my goal, my career, my future, this was the key; e-commerce/project management. I have never felt so happy about anything before, it felt like this super sales man had been reading my mind all this past years and now he brought an answer.
Immediately I started smiling, I could not hold it back, I was so happy. But then he said the costs, I must confess I did feel a cold chill but I did not let that bring me down, I was determined to do the course. He left my house, leaving behind the cost details and materials explaining everything involved with the course e-commerce/project management.
I looked at the book, and the topics that would be covered, all I could hear in my head was, “this is it...kelvin...this is it”, but I had no money, it was hard, but I tried to make sure my excitement did not ruin it all. With no support from my family or anyone else (simply because my parents were against me studying with skills train), I planned ahead, created a timetable to study my university work, organised the working hours with my current job and I calculated how I would earn to cover my monthly payments.
E-commerce became my first commitment, or should I say my first “subject” love. I called skills train and the lady I spoke to over the phone was so amazing, (I have to use that word), and encouraging. I do not know, but it all felt like skills train had been waiting for me. I made my first payment, and when my first materials came through the post, I was eager; I was excited, I was happy.
Now days have turned into weeks, weeks into months, I have read every material, answered questions and my results have been encouraging. There is now something new everyday and some exciting to look forward to, when I come home from university. I used skills train to gain an admission to studying MSc E-commerce in Kingston University. It is all a dream come true, my future looks even brighter. The knowledge I have gained from skills train has developed my mental and practical skills not just in IT, but my personal attitude to everything. Every page has been interesting, every material has been a benefit and every stage gears me up fully for challenges ahead.
I just want to quickly say THANK YOU SKILLS TRAIN, because of you this Christmas is made beautiful, memorable and I could not ask for anything more. Skillstrain you have made me the Happiest man on this earth. This Christmas I am definitely thankful I am studying a course I love and on a career path I have always wanted to be.
THANK YOU SKILLS TRAIN.
-Kelvin
I started working in this company last year right after completing my Masters programme. I started off as a customer support technician and within the last 11 months I have managed to get promoted to technical support. Right now, I am in charge of windows xp technical support where I'm dealing with all windows xp major issues. I got promoted all within 6 months after started working. I have gained massive amount of knowledge about windows system configuration, security, resource, performance and networking configuration throughout my study with SkillsTrain. In contrast to my promotion, this year's Christmas celebration would be one of the best that I could ever imagine. Last year, I can still remember the financial pinch I was going through where my family and I enjoyed a small Christmas celebration at home. All those moments are still so vivid and clear to me. We cooked at home and visited some of our family friends around during the Christmas holidays. However, this year I can afford to treat my family members to go for an exciting holiday tour.
Thanks to SkillsTrain for bringing me this far. Everything seems to be so easy for me now. I feel so much of confident of working in a current environment. This is a result of tremendous knowledge which I have gained with SkillsTrain.
Before this, I was heading nowhere, but right now I have a clear vision of achieving excellence and grabbing a better job with better salary scale soon.
-Devendren
I think that studying with skills train is going to make this Christmas better as if I was studying at college Christmas could be very stressful with course work now with skills train I can take my time and not rush with any of my assignments and hand them in when I feel ready to do so studying with skills train is the best choice I ever made and would like to thank the staff at skills train for giving me a place on this course thank you!
-Nichola
This is the time that I want to thank you for the tutor team that attending to my questions and also to the staff of skills train. I am thankful that I join in this program because it teach me to learn more about the computer and much more to my course hoping to finish it on time. I gives me to be more creative in my work and to enter in some job opportunities like doing a paid survey at home just in front of my computer. Thank you very much! And Merry Christmas to all of you.
-Lillian
Thanks to SkillsTrain I am now able to enjoy my Christmas knowing that I will be able to provide for my family when I finish my course. I am still just young, but thanks to SkillsTrain I will be able to get a nice job during my A-levels and help me on my way into university. I will also get to learn so much about IT that without SkillsTrain I do not believe I would be able to.
-Giovanni
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