Richard's Training

My inspiration for training came from my redundancy notification in September 2005. Well, not directly from that perhaps, but after looking for alternative employment and finding that many potential employers were in areas where we could not afford to live. I already had an interest in all things computing, and especially web site creation, so decided to explore that possibility. I plumped for a course with The National it Learning Centre, based in Newark, Nottinghamshire. It is distance-learning, that is to say, I study at home using materials sent by courier, with occasional visits to Newark for workshops. Initial assessments were conducted online but now assignments are given and submitted by email.

I used a Career Development Loan to pay the course fees and cover some necessary hardware and software. This is interest-free provided I pay it back within two years, and I hope to comply.

I keep a log of the hours I spend studying, and revise a completion forecast occasionally. It's difficult to forecast because I don't have all the course material available at the start. Some of the manuals indicate the length of each Lesson and some don't. It all depends on how long you're prepared to spend and how much you already know.

I capture my study progress and chart it in Excel.

My initial completion forecast was for August 2006 from commencement in January 2006. Unfortunately, I had a two-month enforced break due to an eye problem. It was more difficult than I thought to pick up from where I left off so I had a second bite at the first half of the CSS manual. I hadn't reckoned on the web site assignment taking so long either. The latest course completion forecast is Feb 2008!

Various assessments are required but are removed for simplicity.

Chapters:

Other sections:

External links:

NITLC