Are you ready to listen to a podcast? Upskill, upskill, masterclass. Hi everyone, thanks for listening. Thanks for downloading the seventh episode of the Upskill Masterclass.
My name's Ralph Tucker. Today we'll be chatting to one of our recently appointed student ambassadors who'll take us through their individual experience of doing one of Upskill's courses. We hope by them sharing their journey and learning experience, other students will also take great benefit from it. We'll be talking to real students with real challenges sharing real stories.
Today we're joined by Leon Harms. Welcome to the Upskill Masterclass Leon and congratulations on being named as an Upskilled student ambassador. Thank you very much. First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Where you're from, what age you are, and what you do for work? We're working as a technical support officer, so we manufacture air conditioners, and I'm involved in all the free-to-date products for the Australian market. I'm 40 years old, and I'm originally from South Africa, so I've immigrated to Australia nine years ago, and I'm also a permanent resident that decides feeling very honored being here. What course did you elect to do with Upskill?
I initially started with the Plumbine business, and then after a few weeks I found it interesting, and I finished it quite early as well. It took me about two months to complete at the course, and then I started doing the project management, the Plumbine as well, and then after completing that, I enjoyed it so much. I actually signed up for my advanced Plumbines in business and in management. What made you decide to pick the courses?
Was it a work-related thing you wanted to improve your skills? Yes, I do want to carry on improving myself, so I actually formed a personal development plan, and I want to carry on studying and processing life. What made you choose Upskilled for your qualifications? I found the advertisements, I found on the internet very attractive, and off I talked to some of the staff at the company.
I was very motivated, and I started doing everything. Were you fairly confident you were going to succeed, or did you have many doubts along the way? Coming from a technical background, I was more on the tools behind the training, and initially I thought it might be a little bit out of my debt, but after I started the course, I actually was very comfortable, especially after talking with my trainer as well. He really motivated me, and from Leon, he just went forward.
And what stage did you feel like you were making progress? Was it after that initial period of finding your way a little bit? Yes, after the first, actually after I submitted my first assignment, then I got some feedback, I really felt more confident in it, and from Leon, it was all positive. What were the factors that made you keep going?
The challenges being not my field, you know, it's like it really drives me to be uncertain about the outcomes of certain things. So the more negative actually you can say, that more inspires me to be successful, and that really drives me more successful in my studies. Were your family very supportive of you doing these courses? Unfortunately, I don't have any family here at this stage.
So that's obviously an even bigger challenge for you, given the fact that you've done it all by yourself. There must be a great level of satisfaction knowing that you were able to do something like this by yourself. Yeah, sometimes it's not easy to motivate yourself, but you just have to ask yourself what you want to accomplish, and how you're going to get to it, and you have to motivate yourself in succeeding. What were you able to use in both your work and your personal life from the courses that you did?
My work greatly improved. Miniatures is very satisfied with my work. The quality of work I'm delivering is much higher standard than what I used to. And it reflects on your personal life as well, the more satisfied you are with your work and the working conditions, the better you feel about yourself and your personal life accordingly.
Now, what was it that you found most immediately useful from the courses that you did? The way you forward through the course, you have to start at the basic principle steps, like a smart framework on how to develop business strategy. That uses my daily progress as well. Smart, you have to be specific in everything you do.
You have to be measurable. So if you can't measure it, you have to find ways of doing it so that you can establish whether you're succeeding or not, whether it's attainable, if it's reasonable, and in what time frame you can do it. So it's all those frameworks that you learn in the studies that actually start making scenes in a daily situation as well, which you can apply. Now you did the course online?
Yes. How did you find that experience? It's really straightforward. There's no complicated procedures you have to follow or anything.
So I found it very easy to do it online. Did you feel as though you were part of a larger student community? Yes, it's also a find-up for the community as well. I found it very attractive.
And there's a lot of communication. And you can ask questions. And they support you in it. So you found that the up-skilled student support team were of great assistance to you as you were progressing through?
Yes, absolutely. And you mentioned earlier, you had great support from your trainer. What were the specific things that they helped you do? Sometimes you get stuck in a situation where you're not certain whether you perceive the question correctly or not.
And then if you're asking a question of whether you are correct or not, you know they're always very quick to respond and assist you in the right procedure. You found that that was something that they enjoyed sharing their experiences and helping you along the way? Yes, absolutely. They're helpful.
Do you think that your career prospects have improved by getting these qualifications? Yes, I did. In what way do you think that they'll help you in your own personal development? Well, after finishing all these courses, they set a very good framework for my next progression and I've signed up for my MBA as well.
And these courses contributed to that factor. Otherwise, they wouldn't have accepted me if I haven't done it. So it definitely that's brought me in that process. You mentioned earlier that you've emigrated here from South Africa.
Do they have any courses like that over there? And would you recommend upskill to anyone looking to undertake that, particularly if they're an immigrant? I would definitely recommend it. And no, South Africa doesn't have those proper online courses.
I would definitely recommend it for any immigrant. What advice would you give to any new students or anyone considering doing a course with upskill? The fact that it can contribute to your daily work environment, it is definitely opposite the direction to go in doesn't matter what your career move at this stage is. It will always reflect on your future and future prospect.
All right. Thanks very much for that, Leanne. We really appreciate your time today and joining us on the upskilled masterclass. Thank you very much.
There he is, Leon Harms. And what an inspiring story. Thanks very much for taking the time out to listen today. If you've got any questions or feedback, please head to the website upskilled.edu.au.
Don't forget you can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. You can also leave us a rating or a review in iTunes, which would be greatly appreciated. And if you really enjoyed our podcast today with our student ambassador, Leon Harms, please tell a friend. I'm Ralph Tucker.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for downloading. And we'll catch you next time on the upskilled masterclass.