Having completed the first section of the CIW Web Design Manager course I have set-up in business. I am now operating as a sole trader and managed to juggle my full time job, setting up and registering as a sole trader (bank accounts, tax, accountants, etc.) with the learning.
Despite being competent with computers, I would never have had the confidence of starting my own business without the course. Although there is still quite a way to go before completing the whole course, I have managed to apply my new knowledge and celebrated my first contract this week!
Yes, it's only a small website, but it's a start. The response I've had locally from businesses I've contacted has been very positive and I am constantly networking with people. - providing advice where possible.
I completed the first project on time and within budget so the client was very happy. Rather than creating free websites for friends/family I now have the confidence to approach "paying" clients.
At this rate the course will have paid for itself in no time!
Thank You, thank you, thank you.
-Craig
I believe that I could be considered for entry on the grounds that I have worked very hard and have achieved good results. I completed reading my course guide in three weeks and completed all the TMAs. I committed about 7-8 hours per day (plus night hours) going through the course material. I read on the bus, at the bus stop and even sometimes walking and reading on the road. So far I have submitted 3 out of 5 TMAs and have achieved an average of 90% plus. I have completed and re-checked my other TMAs in preparation. I am in the process of re-reading the Course Guide so I can consolidate all the ideas as well as prepare for my first exam, while I wait for part B to arrive. I hope that my zeal, enthusiasm and achievements will be impressive enough to merit me an award of one of the prizes.
-Inez
I have worked at my currently employment for just over 4 years now starting as a call centre worker. After 3 years I began to feel dissatisfied and wanted more from life, that's when I decided to take up the CIW webmaster course and make something of my life. I then moved up within the same company and became an administrator. With the current situation of the global recession and companies cutting back my administrator job has come under threat as my employers look at outsourcing to the Far East. However this has resulted in a great opportunity, as I have now been offered the role of Junior Web Developer within the IT department at my company. This is just fantastic I am absolutely over the moon! Considering I have no practical experience or any formal qualifications as of yet, but what I do have is an eagerness to learn new skills and the determination to work hard and achieve what I want out of life. I have recently been learning Visual Basic.NET alongside my webmaster course which will give me a great head start and broaden my skill set. I would like to say a big thanks to Skills Train as the providers of my course because I believe that without this course I would not have been offered my new job. Over the years I have learned that you don't always get what you want by just saying it but by doing something to prove you want it and that is what this course has done.
-Lisa
I enrolled in the course just before I commenced chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer. I had always wanted to acquire IT skills but could not find the time to study from a very busy life as a consultant. So when I was faced with six months of sick leave, I jumped at the chance to fulfil a dream. But when I experienced severe discomfort after the first round of treatment, I seriously considered suspending my studies. But I simply couldn't put down the training material. I was fascinated at how patiently it explained the concepts of the IT world to my understanding. Through the Labs, I've practiced and grasped some things that up to now have seemed impossible to understand and filled me with envy of even the new recruit in my organisation's IT department.
Now I'm able to direct colleagues in the office on how to get the best results from browsing the Internet for research. I've also corrected the potential costly error of disregarding copyright issues in our extensive use of material from the Internet. Before the course, even my IT Unit did not know the proper way to cite Internet-based information. Now we've made it a company-wide policy to adopt the Chicago Manual of Style for citations on all official documents using information from the Internet. Also, we've improved the quality of our research work with knowledge of Web Search Strategies that I've learnt in the course, especially the process of evaluating web site information, which we never practised. We are also in the process of implementing P2P networking in our organisation to maximise our processing resources. I am also better able to challenge out IT dept. to implement other value-added programs that I've learnt in the course.
When I enrolled for the course, I thought I would just learn the narrow skills of web sites design but due to the unique training approach of SkillsTrain, I'm getting to appreciate the enormous leverage of IT generally. I am keen to apply all knowledge in our business immediately I get it from my studies so that the course is already generating value-adds that will far exceed the time, effort and money that it will cost me.
The sheer excitement of learning so much practical IT at such a trying time in my life has increased my interest in the course greatly and I find that I've picked up a good pace and am completing my TMAs with good grades and well within my study timetable. This in turn has improved my prospects and disposition in life and I find that I'm able to manage the low periods of life under cancer treatment much better. When I consider that this is only Section 1, Part A of the course, I just relish the next few months to come.
-Mfon
These study/course has made me grow, the last time my friends called me to create website/designs for them I taught that was it , but now I am growing daily and am exposed to wide range of things I have not yet learnt, this time I got a mail from foreign investors/company who ant me to either work for them or come and train their staff,an example is a company in the US having seen/read about me on the web wants me to come to the states(Baltimore).
In the next 2 months I will be there ,and I will also use the opportunity to introduce SKILL TRAIN who have been my mentors/motivators without who I would have been begging for money from friends, but today they have brought sunshine to my life. It has been a very busy time for me these days because I hardly have time for my family and hope to employ people to assist me in the office am setting up soon.
Right now I am marketable trough the help of SKILL TRAIN, like I said a lot of people keep asking me where/how I acquire my knowledge so soon within the short period I started this course,it has been a surprise to me also, in fact my husband thought when I was starting the course that am too old to learn but you will not believe that after creating a website for his business he is about to enrol with SKILL TRAIN to enhance his business/knowledge,this is marvellous.
Once again I will encourage all students to please encourage friends/families/colleagues to come and enrol with SKILL TRAIN because we are in the IT world,soon the world itself will be technology driven and if people are not updated they will be relegated.
Finally I will use this opportunity to thank all those who work at SKILL TRAIN for making my life turn to huge success because when I was down they lifted me up,from GRASS to GRACE.
-Oluyemi
Managed to complete my MCSA course work in a shorter time that specified studying part time, combining with my full time work and home duties. I have passed 3 MCPs and I am an exam away to obtain my MCSA. Can't wait for the next level. ALL THINGS ARE INDEED POSSIBLE!!
-Donalisa
Hi there, I thought I would share my achievements with you all as I am sure I couldn't have done it without Skills Train! It probably taken me longer than most because I've had to work full time throughout the training course, but even before passing my CCNA exam, just the fact that I had nearly finished it was enough to get a decent pay rise and start at a company called Wedgwood in Stoke-on-Trent. It is a well-established company and someone who I am proud to work for. They recognise that this Cisco qualification is well worth having and appreciate how much work needs to go in to it. A few weeks at Wedgwood and some more days of hard studying and I passed my CCNA exam without having to even start the final semester. I am very proud of my achievements so far and I am eager to now start my CCNP. The Network+ exam seems a distant memory but that was the stepping stone I needed. And today, I have been offered an interview for an even better Network Engineer job which is also in Stoke-on-Trent. I feel like things couldn't really get any better and I am now extremely motivated to continue my studies. I've never even had to phone up and hassle anyone at Skills Train! Lastly, thanks to everyone there for helping and keeping it running smoothly for me. All the best!
-Matt
Over the past two months I have been studying very hard for promotion at work. One of my key tasks was to pass my A+ and N+ exams to help put a case forward for promotion. In December 2007 I passed both external exams to certify as an A+ IT Technician and now have the certificate on my wall at work. Then to make things even better I sat and passed my CompTIA N+ exam in February and am now awaiting that certificate to go alongside my A+ one. My manager has just said he is going to support my case for promotion and fingers crossed it will be made true these coming months. All of this is down to the course materials received from Skillstrain making the studying a lot easier with excellent course materials.
Thanks
-Mohammed
I have just passed the final exam (70-291) for my MCSA Certification, with a score or 889, which I believe is pretty good. Over the past 12 months I have taken and passed first time my A+, N+, and all three MCSA exams, but I am entering this month due to the completion of the certification and my score.
-Andrew
I work in a convenient during the day and in a Restaurant in the evening. Yet I have achieved 100% on all of my TMA's. To get my break into the IT Industry I do free work on weekends at my local computer shop in Withington, Manchester. Yet I am still smiling and hope to complete this course for the rewards it offers.
-Usman
I started this course a few years ago intending to complete it within a year.
My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undertake a major operation to save her life.
With all the concern I did not continue with the course.
I attempted to continue about a year later once my wife had finished all her chemo and appointments at Hospital , I had a lot of tome off work that year.
I continued with the course
Sadly we discovered a year or so later that the cancer had spread to her bones , and she had to have more chemo so I stopped the course again.
After the treatment had finished I attempted to continue and found myself having to stop again due to the fact that my wife was rushed into Hospital with fluid in her lungs and heart. An operation was performed and she came home. Them some months later she went into a hospice for a rest and then had to go back to hospital because the fluid in the lungs had come back.
During this time the last thing I was thinking about was the course you understand.
She had another operation and went home.
After many trips up and down to hospital she went back to the hospice after what turned out to be her last holiday with myself and our 2 daughters she got very ill.
Sadly my wife died of cancer at the Hospice at the age of 41 just 5 days away from her 42 nd birthday.
During a few of our visits to the hospice my wife told me off for not continuing with the course saying I had wasted £1300 , and that the course organisers would not be willing to let me continue and in her words " you have blown it you idiot "
I told her that I believed I would be able to continue , and with great thanks to skills train you have allowed me to start from the beginning for which I am very grateful.
I owe it to my wife to complete this course and pass and pass well, as I can not let myself blow it.
I also have a duty to my daughters to make their Mother proud of me for picking this up after all that has happened.
I can not thank skills train enough for this opportunity .
I work as ICT Technician for Greenwich Council and my wife wanted to donate computer equipment to the hospice who looked after her , and also get the staff and patients some ICT training from my work place.
I am very happy to say she got her wish, as I was able to arrange for some of our teachers to supply this to the hospice.
I also personally installed one computer and gave internet access , and a colour printer for staff and patients to use.
My wife was showing staff and patients how to use it, and also ordering our shopping online days before she died .
I also supplied 2 printers and another computer to the hospice as this is what my wife wanted.
My wife studied and gain an honours degree in Community Art and Design at Greenwich University just weeks before she died .
This is what now drives me to complete this course and pass and pass well, I do this in her memory.
She passed suffering from Cancer , I must pass my course.
Once again my deepest thanks to skills train for giving me this chance once again.
Greenwich university did the same for my wife during her illness , I am also very grateful to them.
-Matthew
I have struggled with the course thus far, not in terms of the content, its the time I have struggled with.
Work/family/friends, everything seemed to be getting in the way, my folder was always there reminding me that I should be making time to study and complete my course.
At the end of May I made some serious decisions about my future, what I wanted to be doing and what my goals where/are.
A big part of that was making time to study and complete my course as this plays a big part in my long term plan for life in general.
I sat down and worked out when I could study, I was actually surprised in how much potential time I had (and also how much time I wasted!!)
I put together a study plan and set myself some goals. I stuck to those and although it was hard I kept in mind what my long term goals are and how I needed to reach them.
This month I have completed 4 assignments, 3 of which I got 100% in. I am really really pleased with my achievement.
-Philip
Despite being a victim of mindless criminals in my own home while I was in and living in fear I have managed to stay strong and focused on my studies and just submitted an assignment. It May not seem much but after being emotionally drained and very upset, to me it proves that I can stay strong and not let these people win!! I feel it a great achievement!
-Sarah
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