Andrew Widdowson
Study Type: Distance Learning
Study Location: Distance Learning
Subject Studied: IT, Digital Skills and Computer Science
Software development boot camp leads to career change for Andrew
Enrolling on Derby College Group鈥檚 software development 鈥榖oot camp鈥� has led to a whole new career for course graduate Andrew Widdowson.
Andrew is soon to start a level 3 software development apprenticeship with Alfreton-based butcher Owen Taylor & Co after completing 皇家华人鈥檚 12-week online course.
He was offered the new role after 皇家华人 helped him secure an interview with the award-winning butcher.
Andrew, who is 30 and from Nottingham, has a degree in illustration. He took creative subjects at school but has always been interested in software development. Most recently he worked in food retail but decided to pursue his interest in IT after seeing a D2N2 advert promoting the boot camp.
Andrew said: 鈥淚 enjoyed the course. Our teacher, Valerie, was so supportive and knowledgeable. We did all out learning via Microsoft Teams and it was great to have someone there to point you in the right direction if ever you were struggling.
The other learners were great too, so friendly. We鈥檝e kept in touch and have met up in person since completing the course.鈥�
During his 18-month apprenticeship Andrew will be assisting Owen Taylor & Sons with the development of their new ordering app, which has been designed initially to assist the company鈥檚 restaurant trade customers.
The app has been designed externally but Andrew will be working in-house with the business to add features and fix any errors.
He added: 鈥淚鈥檇 definitely recommend the bootcamp to anyone interested in starting a career in software development.
It gives you the basic knowledge you鈥檒l need, such as programming languages. We also learned about computer science on the course 鈥� something I didn鈥檛 know before.
I enjoyed the course. Our teacher, Valerie, was so supportive and knowledgeable. We did all out learning via Microsoft Teams and it was great to have someone there to point you in the right direction if ever you were struggling. The other learners were great too, so friendly. We鈥檝e kept in touch and have met up in person since completing the course.