Personal Statement:

Course choice(s): All the courses I have chosen involve computers, as I have always found I have a natural ability when it comes to using computers, even at an early age. I enjoy the design side of computers; using programs to build websites, games, animations etc., but I also enjoy the technical side of computers; programming, maintenance etc. them and I feel I would be equally qualified for a course in either which would develop my skills further.

Career path: I think this will be a good career choice, as I know that the computer industry are always looking for new people and depending on the actual position they will pay a good salary for the right person. I think that a career in computing is definitely the way to go, it is a growing and evolving industry, making a higher demand for programmers, designers, technicians and so on. It would also be a career I would enjoy and give me a chance to use my creative and technical skills.

Personal achievements: With what spare time I have after my commitments to studies and my employment I do like to involve myself in interests and activities that are important to me. I do like to be occupied and not idle and as such have always been in paid part time employment since the age of 13, Prior to this I often enjoyed helping my parents in their grocery business; most specifically picking out shopping for their more elderly customer’s. I regularly walked the dog for one of their customers who was suffering from a period of ill health. I also used to enjoy spending time with my grandfather in his carpentry workshop prior to his retirement, watching him make many items from a clock or bowl to a window frame or set of stairs. Now that I am 17, I have volunteered to be a blood donor and have just attended my first session. This is something I feel is very worthwhile and useful and aim to continue to do this at the regular session and whenever needed. I was also given an award in I.T earlier this year, praising my near professional standard of work.

Extra-curricular activities: During my time in sixth form, myself and a couple of other students were asked to teach a Yr 9 class how to design games using the Games Factory, and were then even asked to teach other I.T. teachers how to use the software so that they could teach their students. This also led to me providing help to a few of my classmates, helping them with action scripting in flash, and even helping them to create a scrolling image gallery. I’ve also spent quite a lot of time fixing computers, from removing viruses to a complete system restore and even fixed a few hardware issues like USB hardware failure. I enjoy video editing and other multimedia activities.I have made visits to several universities to see what courses they have to offer. I am also planning a trip to Natural Motion in Oxford. Natural motion is a well-established animation software company (the creator of EUPHORIA – a widely used piece of animation software been used in games such as GTA4, Star Wars: Force Unleashed and the new Indiana Jones game) and a newly established games design company. I have recently been asked by my tutor to film & edit our local pre-school nativity play, then to author it to DVD to be sold and all proceeds go to charity. Together with my older brother, I am in the process of setting up our own IT Solutions Company. I am teaching myself Actionscripting and C++, using various online sources, and have successfully made several working flash websites/games and image galleries, to date I’ve only made an basic average application in C++ but endeavour to make more complex programs/applications in the coming months. My GCSE results were very disappointing, and did not reflect my ability in the subjects. This is why my 6 th form tutors had no reservations about accepting me as a 6 th form student. The result were not helped by the fact that my Graphics coursework was ‘mislaid’ between the school and the examining board, and my subject tutor was confident that in his opinion, if this had been marked I would have likely received an significantly higher mark. I have endeavoured to do my best in the 6 th form to achieve the very best I can and am also looking into re-working some of my GCSE coursework in order to improve my grades.

My skills:

Communication skills : Dealing with customer’s requests and queries at work, conversing with customers of all ages at their level.

Organisational skills: Planning and meeting coursework deadlines. Organising & planning my workload in the bakery dept at my part time job.

Working as part of a team: working as a team to achieve targets and ensure dept is fully stocked & staffed, both under instruction and as a team leader.

Leadership skills: Often being left in charge of my department at Somerfield’s - being the most senior member there.

Using I.T.: Performing computer maintenance to my own and others computers. Making use of various computer software programs i.e. Spreadsheets, databases, word processing, multimedia design package etc.

Creativity: Creating my own videos, DVD’s and slideshows, websites & games in my own time or as school work. Designing products, in my Design Technology course problem-solving: When I encountered problems writing my own action scripts I sought out answers on the web.

Negotiation skills: Often having to deal with difficult and awkward customers ensuring that satisfactory solutions are achieved.

Debating skills: I always enjoyed a lively debate in subjects like world issues where I was able to put across my opinion on subjects I felt passionate about.

Ability to take initiative: In my current employment I often work shifts unsupervised, having to react appropriately to the events of the day to meet demands and expectations.