It’s never too late to learn Computer Science

It was really great to gain a better insight into the kind of work covered in the course.  It’s nearing the end of the course, so the class were all busy working away on their Graded Unit projects.

All the students have been tasked with designing an e-commerce website for a bookstore, so we got to test and analyse the website that Calum designed, looking at it from the customer’s point of view to see how user-friendly the website is.

Calum went through the design process, the different website sections, and why he had chosen to set up the website in a particular way. Hopefully my feedback helped with the all-important project evaluation.

I wanted to find out why, at the age of 46, Calum decided to come back to education and change his career.

Calum tells us about his journey and why it’s never too late to learn!

“Before I joined the navy, a number of years ago, I had always been interested in IT and computing.  I had actually applied to UWS for a Computer Science degree and although I got an unconditional offer, I decided to come to Ayrshire College instead.

I didn’t want to commit to a 3 year degree course, when I could come to college for a year, and find out if Computer Science was for me.

Now I’ve discovered that this is what I really want to do, and the college course provided that opportunity for me.

Why Computer Science?

I chose to go into Computer Science, as in my experience, every problem I’ve been involved with in my working life, has usually been IT related.  That could either be the working IT knowledge of staff or the IT systems being used.  I found that every scenario was IT related and that I enjoy working out the solutions for this.

For example, I worked at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 in the Village Operations team.  It was a really good insight into project management.  When I worked in the navy, I looked after logistics where everything was database driven, so it inspired me to either design databases or manage them.

Any worries about coming back to education as a mature student?

I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the course and coming back to college.  As IT and computing are always changing, it’s busy and challenging.  But that’s ok, change is good!  Means there’s always something new to learn.

To be honest, it can be quite daunting coming into a class with younger people.  But I needn’t have worried.  We work in teams throughout the course, and at the moment we’re looking at e-commerce, business start-ups and marketing.

I find the age differences useful as it means that we all have our own specialised knowledge, for example, the younger students might know more about mobile applications.  In fact, we all help each other out.

What kind of advice would you give to a mature student?

I’d say just do it. Don’t panic, get advice, go and speak to the college before you apply.  They are very welcoming and helpful in my experience.

At college, the great thing is that you get to know the lecturers and get the support where you might need it.

If you are a mature student and you’re sitting on the fence, unsure about what you want to do career-wise, go to college first.

The key thing, for me is that I’m not wasting time as effectively I am on the same path that I would have been if I’d chosen the university course, but at least I’m 100% sure this is for me.

What’s next?

Ayrshire College works closely with UWS courses, so for me, going on to the Computer Science degree there makes sense. I start after the summer this year.

Calum’s Business and Computing Lecturer, Gary Hendry said “In the Computing department we would always encourage applications from mature students.  Mature students tend to be some of the best and most successful candidates we get to work with in Ayrshire College.

“If you have the desire to achieve a computing qualification, and if the time is right for you to undertake a fresh new challenge, then come in to the college for a chat. Also, if you feel you are under-qualified, we can look at factors other than paper qualifications for admission to our courses. Mature candidates often possess a wealth of experience which can be applied in lieu of paper qualifications.”

Ask any potential mature student to name their fears and the list will read something like this: will I be able to understand the lectures; will I be able to write an essay; will I make friends? The answer to all of these questions is yes!

So, what are you waiting for?

Applications are open for Business and IT courses now.

#nevertoolatetolearn