After leaving college I obtained an apprenticeship placement with T-Shirt Studio and I am currently working towards the Level 4 Software Developer Standard. This apprenticeship has been an amazing opportunity and continues to provide me with the real life software development experience which I have wanted ever since I started studying Computer Science.
During my time at T-Shirt Studio I have learnt how to develop webapps in both MVC and windows forms and have become far more fluent in C# and OOP in general. I have also had the opportunity to use SQL databases and create stored procedures in SQL
This was my part time job whilst I was studying at school and college. This job initially entailed helping members of the public with purchasing decisions related to motorcycle accessories and protective clothing. However, as time went on I took on additional responsibilities such as after sales support and even took a course so that I was certified to provide support and sales for a cutting edge air bag system. I really enjoyed this job as it enabled me to explore my interest in motorcycling while also helping to build up my soft skills such as communication and organisation.
After graduating from Nova Hreod Academy I decided to continue my learning by doing a BTEC in software development at New college Swindon. During my time here I completed multiple assignments ranging from Cybersecurity and Social Media Marketing all the way to Human Computer Interaction and project management.
Whilst studying at new college I was asked by one of my lecturers to help out with teaching some classes to students from the year below. I really enjoyed doing this as it allowed me to help other people to achieve their goals while also helping to reinforce my knowledge by finding the optimal way to teach.
Whilsts studying at Nova Hreod Academy I decided that I would like to do some work experience related to computing as I knew this was my main field of interest. I was able to find a placement at the Nationwide Headquarters in the Special Investigations Technology department and was able to get my school to agree to give me a week away from school for this placement.
Whilst working for Nationwide I had the opportunity to debug issues with the system and even implement some patches into their system which ran in VB.net. I really enjoyed this work placement as it gave me my first glimpse into the reality of programming in a workplace and from here on out it was my primary to work towards finding a software development role.
I attended school at nova hreod academy with anaspiration to actively pursue a career in computer science. At this time I didn’t know exactly what kind of role I wanted with computing however, I already knew that I enjoyed programming as I had begun making small games in python and gradually began adding visual elements to them with the TKinter module.
I also knew that communication skills would be vital in any computer science based role so I decided to develop these skills by volunteering for a prefect role so that I could help organise events and communicate with other students within the school in order to organise everything from promotional events to the end of year prom. This helped me to build soft skills which I believe are highly beneficial in my career today. In 2017 my time at Nova Hreod Academy was drawing to a close and I am proud to say that I was presented with an award for attainment in Computer Science.