Coleg y Cymoedd grows its own talent

With an increased reliance on I.T. across the college over the past two years, the workload of the IT department has grown immensely and the college has looked to its learners to bolster the team.

Two former learners Daniel Grandon and Ben Joseph studied at the college and are now employed by the college, as part of the IT team, supporting staff and learners across the four campuses.

Ben, aged 20, from Aberdare attended St John Baptist Church in Wales High School and after studying a year of his A Levels he realised this wasn’t the route that suited his learning.

After speaking to family and friends he visited the college and with a good understanding of computing he enrolled on the BTEC Level 3 Computing and Information and Technology course.

This two year course equipped Ben with a range of knowledge and skills from Creative Media, Gaming and Computing; and also helped with his confidence and social skills. The qualification provided Ben with options for his future, whether further studies at university or employment.

Speaking about his studies at Cymoedd, Ben said “The college has many benefits, the range of courses to choose from, the specialised rooms and facilities and extremely supportive tutors who are passionate about the subjects they teach. I would definitely recommend the college, and the course has helped me secure employment, in a busy IT team at the college; which I really enjoy”.

Daniel, aged 21 from Bargoed attended Heolddu Comprehensive school and after completing his GCSE’s felt the need to change the place of studying.  After hearing positive comments about Coleg y Cymoedd, from friends and family he decided to enrol at the college to see what opportunities it would open up for him.

Having a keen interest in computing, fixing problems, finding out how things work and having a general idea of IT, Daniel enrolled on the Level 3 90 Credit Diploma in Information Technology with Welsh Baccalaureate. Following the two year course he went on to complete the Foundation Degree Information Communication Technology.

Commenting on his studies and employment at the college, Daniel said “The course helped me decide what I wanted to do and what path of IT I wanted to follow but I had no clue what I wanted to do after college, I had no set plans. I didn’t want to go to university as I didn’t think it would have been right for me.

The tutors were extremely helpful, each individual lecturer pushed me in the way that I needed to, even finding methods that worked for me. I took on a part-time summer helper job within the IT department to assist with the replacement of computers during the summer break and things have gone on from there. I would 100% recommend studying at Cymoedd to anyone, the IT teaching staff helped me find out what I wanted to do for the job aspects. Studying at the college has impacted me massively as I’ve managed to stay and join an amazing team within IT and begin to build my knowledge with the experienced people around me”.

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