By Dave Snow, Academic Director at Home Learning College
For the past five years, Dave Snow has been responsible for overseeing Home Learning College’s tutoring staff, relationships with academic partners and development of all course content. Prior to this he was head of programme development in the home study arm of Manchester Business School, and he has also held the position of Director of Qualifications and Operations at the National Computing Centre (NCC) Education.
29 year old Wayne Testill from Woking enrolled on our combined CompTIA Strata and A+ course in October 2011 and worked hard to pass all three associated exams just five months later. We caught up with him to find out more about his impressive achievement and his plans for the future....
What other qualifications do you have and when did you last study?
I have a couple of GCSEs from school in the late 90s but haven’t studied since then, so this was a big decision for me.
What is your current profession?
I’m an MOT assistant at a local garage during the day and an assistant cashier for a bookmaker in the evening, but I’ve always been interested in IT and aim to develop a career in this sector. I enrolled on this combined course because CompTIA is a vendor neutral study programme that would develop my skills from scratch and give me a solid grounding from which to progress.
What was the best thing for you about studying from home?
With two jobs, my time is fairly limited. Distance learning is great because I don’t have to attend day or evening classes and can fit the course around my work, which means that I usually study at the weekend. I’m pretty focused, so I didn’t have any problems with self motivation.
How did you find the experience of taking the exams?
When I first started the course it looked pretty complicated but as the months passed by and each assignment was slowly completed, I gained knowledge and felt more comfortable. I was really nervous before my first exam because I didn’t know what to expect. Since then my confidence has grown, but there’s still a degree of nerves when walking into an exam venue because I want to pass.
What are your future plans?
I am currently studying towards my CompTIA Network+ certification and then I will think about gaining some Microsoft accreditations.
What are the main changes you have experienced since starting your course?
Without doubt, the biggest change so far has been to my confidence. I now know that I have the ability to learn new skills and this has given me the drive to continue my studies and start applying for jobs in my chosen industry.
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