Not sure that University is right for you? Thomas Rixon, a Level 3 IT Apprentice from Oxford started his Apprenticeship after looking at alternative ways to pursue a career within IT. After meeting the team at the 3aaa Oxford Academy and discussing his options, Thomas never looked back…
“When I started at 3aaa and Olamalu, I didn’t know what to expect with regards to what I would be doing on a day to day basis or what everyone would be like. After being here for 3 months I know I have made the right choice and I am really enjoying it. I left school half way through sixth form as I didn’t want to go to university and wanted to work in IT.
So an Apprenticeship seemed the way to go. So far on this Apprenticeship I have learnt some great things. The 3aaa Oxford Academy have taught me a lot more than what I would have learnt at school. They have taught me some basic skills such as taking a computer apart and putting it back together again and running a basic server. They have also taught me some things I had never really heard of before like SLA’s and scopes on DHCP servers. Doing an Apprenticeship gives you more freedom than school and gets you ready for working in the IT industry.
I had been interested in web design and development for a while but didn’t really understand how the whole process worked. Since starting with Olamalu I now know how it all works and each step that goes into designing and developing a website. For someone who didn’t know as much as they wanted, the company have been kind in helping me with this and helped me develop my skills. They have taught me things I always thought about but never understood like how layouts of websites work and the styling that goes along with websites.
One of the things that is best about this Apprenticeship is that when you are working on a website, you know that people are going to see what you have done and it should help them. Along with this I am now getting better at CSS and starting to learn the basics of JavaScript, which I am really enjoying and have always wanted to do. Everyone at Olamalu has helped me a lot with this and I thank them for that.
If someone wants to work with websites, or IT in general, I would recommend they take this Apprenticeship as it will help them learn things that they need to know and help them start their career. I have received a great deal of support every step of the way, which makes an Apprenticeship a great thing to do.”