Adam Grover's Skills Bootcamp Journey

From chef to coder, Skills Bootcamp in Creative Computing student Adam Grover shares his experience on one of our short courses.

My name's Adam Grover, I'm 36 and I've worked as a chef for over 10 years. After trying a few times to change careers, I decided to take part in Bath Spa University’s Skills Bootcamp in Creative Computing earlier this year. Since completing this short course, I've started a new role as a web developer for the Wessex Learning Trust.

Skills Bootcamps are free part-time courses of up to 12 weeks that allow you to learn the digital skills needed to change careers, particularly in the technology industry. They’re for anyone over the age of 19 and don’t require you to have any previous experience in the topic you’re interested in.

“Be prepared to do a lot of extra learning in your own time. I know it’s a cliche but you’re only going to get out what you put into the course.”

Over the 12 weeks students like myself learn about user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, app and website development, product management and much more. We learned from experienced UI, UX and web designers in an online classroom setting and worked together on group projects. We also presented our final project to industry professionals for feedback.

Halfway through the short course, we started to develop employability skills such as communicating effectively in the workplace and interview techniques. These are taught through weekly employability sessions by a professional employability lecturer and are practised through individual and group exercises.

“The highlight was being part of a group and learning to code with other people. I’d tried to learn on my own before and never knew where to start. Having a structure and collaborating with other students really helped.”

In my previous role as a chef I learned how to be organised, manage my time effectively, communicate well, work methodically and have great attention to detail. These are all skills that I have transferred to my new role as a web developer. On the Skills Bootcamp I gained a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS which is very useful when I’m designing, developing and maintaining websites for the Wessex Learning Trust.

For anyone considering completing the Skills Bootcamp in Creative Computing, I recommend trying coding and designing a website beforehand to see which aspects appeal to you, then pick a Skills Bootcamp tailored to that. Remember that completing a short course is just the start of your UX/UI journey.