After a decade out of education Craig Alston (30) from Falkirk was apprehensive about starting a full-time course and retraining for a new career, Forth Valley College boosted his confidence and helped set him on a new path.
Craig a HND Computing: Technical Support student has now secured a job in his new industry and recommends the College to anyone thinking about upskills and retraining.
He said: “I chose Forth Valley College because it was close, convenient and suited what I wanted to do as a career. From doing my own research into the course I found that the content and especially the lecturers, were well received by previous students.
“I studied at the Alloa Campus and facilities-wise it had all I could have asked for. From a computing standpoint it was very well suited to learning hardware maintenance, all the way to creating virtual environments that we could create networks, servers and practice aspects of cyber security.
“The College has helped me focus on a defining career. After 10 years out of education, I’ve re-learned to study which has made me a lot more effective at my current job, after graduating from FVC. Socialising with other students more passionate about different aspects of IT than me has also been a great experience.
“My lecturers had workshops for creating CVs and talking to us about what IT companies would be looking for in new candidates. This let us plan out potential careers. They were always sure to make us aware of upcoming jobs within this field that would be appropriate.
“I would recommend Forth Valley College’s HND in Technical Support as it has supported me with a great base of knowledge in multiple aspects of IT from Security, to programming and project management. This let me make an informed decision about what field in IT I wanted to focus on. The networking created through the College and events it recommended were also a boost to my career prospects.
“The best part of this experience was coming into computing from having never done it before, and not feeling like an outsider. There were no stupid questions to my lecturers and everything had a logical answer. Meeting other motivated individuals who had experiences of their own to share with me was also great. Making friends was a definitive highlight
“I’d recommend people to choose college for various reasons. I did it because after a redundancy I wanted to learn something new, while changing the industry I was in. I was reluctant after 10 years out of education, but I’m glad I made the decision as I had a great time through my course and have managed to get a job within my chosen industry.
Summing up his experience at Forth Valley College in three words, Craig, said: “Exciting, Interesting, Rewarding.”