Leaving Cert Students At CCT - A Look Inside The Summer Taster Courses At CCT (With Some Pictures!)

Three quick weeks have gone by here at the College of Computer Training, and for most it was a little too soon! Just as the Leaving Cert students were getting to grips with the college experience, in a flash it was over. Thankfully, during this time we managed to get a few quick pictures of the action that was going on.

A Change of Pace

Making the change from the world of leaving certificate can be a big experience when you have been geared up for a wide range of subjects for so many years. Learning to focus your energy on a single topic and really having the time to expand your mind on the areas which interest you can be new to many students. This change is what many of the students who attend the taster course found most exciting. The taster course served as their first introduction to the college world, where they can speed up or slow down their learning process to suit their needs.

Hard at work with Microsoft Visual Studio

Meeting New People On A  Similar Wavelength

One of the great aspects of a taster course is meeting students of a similar age, who are all interested in the subjects that you are, each from different backgrounds with different levels of experience. At the CCT taster course, students from all around Dublin and the surrounding areas had a chance to meet those people. These students worked together very well and showed a keen interest in group work, one of the fundamentals of succeeding in any job today. Working well in a group encourages the sharing of ideas and the discussion of how they feel a job should be done. 

Heads down working away.

A Different Environment

Although classrooms have changed over the last 40 years, using laptops and looking out the window to a bustling Westmoreland Street is certainly a change of scenery for many. Despite all of these distractions, students kept engaging with the staff during classes, essential to get the most out of their experience.

Dr. Brett Becker doing what he does best!

During the development life cycle, students where encouraged to stand up and present their concepts and discuss with the class how they designed their initial wireframes of their applications. To make this all a little easier, the staff of course lead by example! No idea is ever too far fetched for trying.

Wireframes are an important part of the development cycle. Graham dropped in to give us a few extra tips.

Questions always welcome of course!

Learning New Real World Skills

The skills learned by the students during their time here at CCT go beyond the technical aspects. Group work, sharing of ideas and seeing a project through to the very end. These valuable skills will remain with the students and transfer to the college degrees and into the working world.

Kyle explaining C# and the concept of Web Development.

Ricardo and his gang for the summer

Showing Up To Class Because You Want To

Instead of the usual motions associated with going to secondary school, college has a completely different vibe. Students show up because they want to learn and not because they are being told to attend! This was exactly the case for the taster courses. Attendance rates where great and each and every student was willing to get the maximum out of the taster course experience that they could. Here at CCT we are more than happy to facilitate this attitude to learning.

A Few Final Remarks From The Staff

To keep a nice balance, we wanted to hear what the staff here at CCT had to say about their experiences with the Leaving Cert students who opted to give a taster course a try:

Great group of students! They were all very interested in understanding the fundamentals of mobile development, and they also showed engagement throughout the course, during lectures, practical and discussion sessions. Most of them are planning to study Computer Science, thus the course served to give them a taste of what to expect in college. - Ricardo Iwashima

I taught the Networking taster course along with Graham. I was impressed with the students in the class and I felt that they showed incredible motivation and maturity. Graham administered the FETAC exam to them and I administered the Microsoft Technology Associate exam to them. All of the students who took the Networking MTA exam passed that test and this proved to be a very positive experience for myself and the students. - Michael Weiss

Good Luck!

All in all, we can consider this year of taster courses here at the College of Computer Training a success. We wish all our students all the best in their futures and hope what they have learned will stand to them, as we not doubt know it will.