Annual Report 2012 - Highbury College

Mark Flynn
BTEC Level 3 Diploma in IT - Computer
Networking & Systems Support
I hadn’t thought about entering the regional final of the Advanced Microsoft IT
Technician WorldSkills competition, which was held at Highbury. But my teacher
encouraged me to turn up, just in case there was a spare place. Luckily for me
there was. I came second!
My score was high enough to earn me a place at the national finals in
Birmingham. After the regionals I got lots of extra coaching and practice tests
from my teachers to prepare for the finals.
The competition was challenging and there was a lot to do. We had to create a
computer network. It meant building computers from scratch, making cables,
installing software, solving problems, getting it all running - it felt like a real-world
work situation.
I liked the fact that the competition was open and people would come by to see
what you were doing as you were competing. People were taking an interest and
it was good to have that interaction with the crowd.
It was a huge event. It felt like being at the Olympics! After our competition was
over it was exciting to walk around, see the other competitions taking place and
experience the range of things to get involved in.
I felt that I’d done quite well in my event, but when I learned that I’d won gold I
couldn’t believe it. Winning a gold medal has given me more confidence in my
own abilities. It will look good on my CV too.
There are WorldSkills competitions taking place in Germany in 2013 and in Rio de
Janeiro in 2015. I'm hoping to broaden my skills by studying another area of IT and
then I could possibly be selected to compete for the UK team in Brazil, which
would be amazing!