Tuesday 30 September 2008

Where I've Come From; Where I Am Now; Where I'm Going

I have just started the HND in Interactive Media at Wakefield.

My education started in Pontefract, at Lark's Hill Junior and Infant School. After passing my SAT's with flying colours I went on to study at The King's High School, also in Pontefract - which I hated with a passion. Not that I didn't hate junior school, but high school was even worse. Still, I survived it and enrolled at Wakefield College.

I have studied two courses at Wakefield College prior to this one, although my first was actually a BTEC National Diploma in Animal Management. A bit different to IT, but I'd always wanted to work with animals.

When I say I studied at Wakefield College that's not completely true: the course was actually run by Askham Bryan College in York, and we were required to study at both colleges. In the first year we studied mostly at Wakefield College; in the second year we studied mostly at Askham Bryan.

Askham Bryan is an agricultural college and has a far bigger animal unit than Wakfield College, meaning we got to work with a range of animals. The course was fun and gave me a unique opportunity to get up-close to some zoo animals because of Askham Bryan's partnership with Flamingo Land. However, having successfully completed the course, I decided animal work wasn't for me. That was mostly because it isn't well paid enough.

This meant I needed to rethink my career options and I decided computers were the way forward. Therefore, I enrolled on the GCE in Applied ICT. During the course Steve Smith came to do a presentation about the HND in Interactive Media and this prompted me to enrol on the course, bringing me to this point in my education.

I'm hoping this is the final stage of my education and the HND will lead to employment as a web designer.