SkillsTrain N+ Course

I have just submitted TMA 11 and to date all my marks have been above 90% which has given me a new lease of life and hope. This May not seem special to most but to me this course is truly my second chance.

When I was 15 my father passed away suddenly and my mother turned to drink, my family had fallen apart and with my exams around the corner the only person I had was my girlfriend at the time and wife of today. My mother soon after took her own life and left me in pieces. I swear if it was not for my wife I would have just curled up in a ball and just vanished.

I did take my exams and actually did quite well but unfortunately with all I went through I rushed out of school and into work leaving behind any hopes of my original dreams in the IT sector. I did well in my work and soon became a self employed carpenter supporting my wife and now 4 children until April of 2006. Now I have not gone into all the details of my life but due to the extreme grief that I had encountered and over working I suffered a near fatal heart attack. Obviously this scared me but more to the point at 35 years of age I feared more about leaving my family as my parents did me when I was 15. Anyway I obviously pulled through and decided it was time to let go of the past and get the qualifications I needed to get into the world of IT, to re gain my dream. So after a heart attack, a serious drop of income as I had to go bankrupt, 4 kids and nagging wife I have now completed Section 1 Part A.
If all else it was nice to get that off my chest and I thank you for reading a personal part of me.

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When I was about 15 years old, I had no idea about the road ahead of me. I didn't have a clue about what I was in for and the hardship that would test me. It started out like this. I was in High school at the time and was really intimidated by the other students, who were all much bigger than me. Some of them were racist, others just loved to push their weight around. I was in that situation for quite some time. After the hardship I suffered, I decided to break out of the nutshell I was in and take action against them. I got some of them expelled and others got away with it. I had to leave as they became more and more aggressive. Before I left, a few of my relatives in my homeland, Bangladesh, fell ill. Me, and the rest of my family went to visit them, and support them anyway we could. We were their for about 4 - 6 months, but it seemed like a holiday, for most of the time anyway. My parents decided to stay there for a while I came back with my brothers and sister.

When we got back, I was in even more of a mess when I found out I no longer had a place in school because of the amount of time I had been away. So I went along with my brother to The Learning Resource Centre to try and find somewhere else where I could learn and study.

When I heard all the places were full, I decided to go college and take up a course in IT. I thought I should get some qualifications in rather than waste my time starting a year behind. I started a GNVQ in IT, got the best marks in the class, with the best punctuality and attendance, only rivalled by the only girl in our class.

After I finished my first year at college, I decided to take up some serious work. So I got into a market research company in Central London. The pay was great and the experience was very fulfilling. After a while had passed, I thought of it as a dead end and realised I would be doing my future no favours by sitting there and just working deeper into a black hole, well, that's what it felt like.

A realised I had to take action, so I went onto the internet in search of something which would help me progress deeper into the IT industry.

That's when I saw it, it was like my questions had been answered. I clicked on to the link and left my contact details.

Later that week, I received a phone call from a really nice lady from skills train, I forget what her name is, she asked me what I wanted from life, what I wanted to do and what I wanted to achieve and whether I'm looking for new skills or a change of career. I told her I want to do something in IT as the whole concept of computers fascinates me. I want to make my future in computing. We had a little chat and then she booked in an appointment so the course advisor can come and speak to me.

A few days later, the course advisor came and knocked on my door. He was really friendly and polite as he asked me some questions. I agreed to do the course because I believe this qualification will get me VERY far in life and also help me achieve what I want to do, and the great thing is that I have total freedom to study whenever I wanted. But the thing I like about it most is that the tutors are really helpful and friendly.

I once called up one of the tutors and I felt a bit low on motivation, I explained my situation and I don't know what he said exactly, but it filled me with more motivation than when I had started the course. Now I'm studying extra hard and putting more time in, and because of the talk I had with the tutor, it really pushed me in the right direction, and my scores on my recently submitted TMA's prove it!

I'd just like to thank the tutor team for being so helpful and the course advisor for giving me this opportunity and the website which had Skills Train as a link, because at the end of the day, if they weren't there, I would not be on this road to success!

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I DECIDED TO GO FOR A CHALLENGE, INSTEAD OF LIVING DAY TO DAY. THIS COURSE HAS REALLY OPENED UP A WHOLE NEW WORLD FOR ME, NEVER THINKING I COULD DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS.I HAVE STARTED WORKING ON MY OWN PC, WHICH IS NOW WORKING FASTER AND BETTER THAN WHEN I FIRST STARTED. I AM ENJOYING THE NEW KNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE ALREADY PICKED UP, KNOWING THERE IS A VERY LONG WAY TO GO.
HELPING IMPROVE OTHERS WORK STATIONS OR PERSONAL PC'S/ LAPTOPS IS THE FULL AIM I HAVE, AND KNOWING THAT I CAN HELP OTHERS IS WHAT IS DRIVING ME FORWARD WITH MORE DETERMINATION.

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I have just had my 40th birthday last month and I am really pleased with my progress so far. At first I didn't know how to start which took most of my time to figure out how. I finally got myself going and I am determined to finish this course soon. I am married and have 3 kids aged 11,8, and 6. Currently I am working partime and my wife who is also a student nurse with course coming to an end in November 2007 at Middlesex university. The pressure to get the house in order is so high. Apart from this course I am also studying full time Computer science at Middlesex University since September 2004. Above all I am happy with this course so far.

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I have achieved 100% in my written revision aswell as 100% in my previous TMA; this is alongside woking full time and looking after my 9 month old daughter! Since taking this course I have become a head trainer at work for my department, and have managed to train all new and existing staff to a very high standard whilst using our companys' new computer system. I have managed to upgrade a friends desktop by adding a larger RAM and installing a faster graphics card.

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Even though I am only on my TMA 08 I have understood what I have been learning well enough to the extent that I went out to my local components shop and bought all the necessary components and hardware to build a PC. IT took me two days to build and just over £180 as I already had a copy of windows XP in the house. Then I advertised it in the free local paper,the next day a gentleman from Falkirk purchased the PC for £450 which was the asking price. A good profit but still a good buy for the gentleman as the PC contained 1536mb of ram a 17" TFT Monitor which I got NEW for £75, XP pro, 400w psu, dvd-r combo drive, 120gb hdd, pentium Celeron D, etc... not bad as I must be one of the youngest students here at just 17 with my own flat and paying for the course myself and the broadband connection. I feel it is essential to apply myself to something I am interested in and also get a great career out of it too.Also I have got 100% on TMA 04 which was a good improvement as my score was gradually going down since TMA01, I am managing to get a grips with proper studying time and am able to concentrate better as a result I have just submitted TMA05 but have done up to TMA08 already mainly due to the use of your study time table I downloaded which was very helpful.

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Passed my CompTIA A+ Certification exams. Changed jobs within the company, no longer a factory floor worker, but now I am doing a desk job.

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I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE AT SKILLS TRAIN FOR ALL THE SUPPORT THEY HAVE GIVEN SO FAR, I AM A N+ STUDENT I STARTED AT THE BEGINING OF THE YEAR AND HAVE BEEN TRYING HARD TO COPE WITH THE COURSE, I GOT MARRIED LAST YEAR WITH ONE CHILD AND MY WIFE IS CURRENTLY IN THE UNIVERSITY STUDYING THATS WHY I HAVE HAD TO TAKE A HOME LEARNING COURSE. I HAVE A DIPLOMA IN (MIS- management of information systems) WHICH I GOT IN 2003 BUT I HAVE WANTED MORE SKILLS AND KNOWLEGDE ON NETWORKING THATS WHY I ENROLLED FOR THE COURSE. I WORK AS A SUPPORT WORKER IN A SMALL HOME WHERE I SUPPORT 4 PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES, I ENJOY MY WORK AND IT FITS IN WITH MY COURSE AND FAMILY AT THE MOMENT THOUGH SOMETIMES ITS A TIGHT SQUEEZE OF TIME. I HAVE GIVEN 110 PERCENT ON MY COURSE AND I READ THE COURSE MATERIAL OFFERED THOUROUGHLY. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL AT THE SKILLS TRAIN AGAIN FOR ALL THE WONDERFULL WORK THAT THEY ARE DOING.

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I am writing this on behalf of my husband Robert as he won't do it.
He has had a lot happen the last couple of years and has faced an uphill struggle due to a nervous breakdown from military service. His cofidence was on the floor and he spend time in isolation while he dealt with his condition. He tries so hard and although faced with adversity on he has rarely complained. Signing up for this course has taken alot of courage and his desire to acheive is growing. Its like I am getting to know the real person again. Thank you Skillstrain for beginning to show him he is worth something and that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

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I started with skills at the end of January. During this time I was also looking for emplyoment within the IT inudustry. With great pleasure I have now found myself a job with a electronics company. With this great advantage I am able to work and study for my A+ at the same time and get the neccessary experience I need. Thanks to skillstrain I am able to study and work full time and achieve my full potential.

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Before I started this course I knew nothing about how the PC operates. I have learned to identify each component on the motherboard and how it operates. I have studied very hard especially doing a degree course alongside with this course but hopefuly I will receive my degree this year. This is an huge achievement and also I have taught my brother how computers operate as he never knew the software and the hardware side how it interacts. He was very pleased with me that I taught him and he knows quite a lot about computers.

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Hi, how you doing, hope your well!
I think my best achievement was in 2001, when I went to Romainia with my father, who has now passed away August, last year who worked for London Probation; and the Metropolitan Police, to help the Romainian Orphans.
My task was this, as two of the officers (X-Flying Sqaud) could not attend I had to head up the eletrical project, which to say the least was a shock because in Romainia in the small mining town of Lo Pen, 200 miles from the Capital its not 240 VAC it's 3 phase, so I had to step it down from 415-420 VAC to 240.
So as you can see I already had problems which I had to solve as this fact was not know!
Anyway I did solve this and continued on to install three 240 V ring mains, one at 30A with 9 double socket's a second also at 30A with two turets with double sockets and one lighting ring main with 6 fluresent tubes at 6 FT and one switch; and set up 6 computers which were donated by Probation in just 12 Days on a 14 day trip, I done it in 10 with one other aid who was some help?
Also recieved a Merit award from Sir John Stephons of the Met, well chuffed!!!!

My latest achievement will be completing the A+, N+, and the CCNA here at Skillstrain!

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Despite everything I've been threw the last month which with out going into detail is pretty heart breaking I've managed to pull threw and get on with my course. I have found it hard to concentrate with my personal problems mounting up on my shoulders what with work as well but to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel helps me push on.

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