Case Studies
Colin Bain Case Study
Colin Bain was recently offered and accepted voluntary redundancy from Newcastle City Council where he has worked for 17 years in a range of different posts, most recently as a Trade Union Officer.
In order to prepare himself to find other work Colin decided to undertake an IT qualification. He had used computers extensively both at home and at work and decided that it was time to prove that he could achieve a qualification.
Although facilities were available at his workplace, Colin decided to study with Newcastle College Trade Union Education Centre having studied IT at the centre in the past. He decided to study the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) in order to gain an industry standard IT qualification which is known to be popular with employers. He began the qualification in May 2006 and had completed it by October 2006, only four and a half months later!
At first Colin was not sure whether he would like the online approach to learning but actually found it to be the best learning method for him. He was pleased with the flexibility of being able to access at home, work or in the centre and preferred it to formal class room style learning.
Colin was able to achieve his qualification in such a short time due to his dedication in accessing his course on a regular basis at home and in the centre. Booking tests regularly gave him meaningful targets to aim towards. He had taken a web design course at a community learning centre but did not like having to wait for support in a group situation. Colin said that he would recommend learndirect to others as "the learndirect approach is different as there is someone keeping an eye on things and looking at progress".
A comprehensive IAG session at the centre has helped Colin to decide which direction he would like to take in his future career. He is particularly interested in helpdesk support and hopes to retrain in this field. As a result of the IAG session he now has a number of avenues to follow up, both in relation to job vacancies and his preferred career pathway.
Following his success in achieving his ECDL, Colin recently sat and passed his National Test in Adult numeracy at level 2 and is working towards the Literacy test to further update his skills and improve his prospects in the job market.