Practical Skills Courses

[R6_kid:Me]

Ok, to be totally honest the last two years for me at University have pretty much just been a waste of time apart from some of the people I have met - exams are coming up and im not going back next year.

I'm going to be working fulltime (atleast) over summer, but i'm wanting to get some skill out of self interest and if time permits i thought i might as well get qualified in those things if possible.

My course of study was Computer Science - why, i dont know. But I am interested in image manipulation via Photoshop and also have an decent eye on how to put a website together but at the moment im confined to MS Frontpage (the sin!!!) to get things done. I've also dabbled my hand in 3D design before (flight simulator aircraft) but my computer didnt have the power to make this endeavour bearable.

I'd like to look into courses both hands on and with something like webdesign, 3D design or photoshop in mind. The 'hands on' things im thinking about are things like welding/fabrication, (car/motorcycle) painting, and maybe a bit of mechanical how to aswell.

If you know of any short courses in the above areas could you please point me in the right direction.

Aswell as working over summer I intend to get into some ground theory for PPL + CPL at Ardmore to continue my interest in aviation and eventually get into some flying.

[James Deuce]

Aaargh, don't chuck it in. Try cross-crediting as much as you can into a design degree.

[deeknow]

Aaargh, don't chuck it in. Try cross-crediting as much as you can into a design degree.

yeah, wot Jim2 said, you could move down to the Waikato and do the BCGD..
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/learning/bachelors/bcgd.shtml

and check out some new riding territory while your here. Hell, you could even continue your flight training at Hamilton airport

[xwhatsit]

Offtopic: Compsci? At UoA? Sweet ^_^. Me too. Except I'm actually sticking with it, if I can handle it, being a bit of a geek myself. I'm having second thoughts myself, mostly due to the math involved (can't do math for shit). Good luck for you, mate, would be interested to hear how you get on.

[Crisis management]

Rather than doing courses on manual work why not get a summer job doing it? Try maintenance shut downs for factories, you will start off doing shit cleaning jobs but if you ask enough usually people are happy to let try stuff out. Alternatively, get a job as a fitters mate, mechanics dogsbody etc. My son has done that is the past, he wanted to try out being a mechanic, the first workshop he went to gave him eight weeks work. Just go and ask.
If your keen to work you will easily get a job.

[vtec]

Hey Gareth, yeah I'm in the same bracket as you. I went to uni for 2 years doing a Bachelor of Science specialising in Electronics and computing, but I started failing second year Physics papers, and then I started racing motorbikes, and I realised that if I wanted to take motorbike racing anywhere I would need to give it a good shot now, which meant I would have to fund it.

I also thought maybe I would be better suited doing a hands on engineering type job, but I couldn't find any apprenticeships that I liked. I still don't know what I want to end up doing with my life, but I have started bicycle couriering, and damn I was fit before, but I'm insanely fit now, and I'm making mildly reasonable money, and it's fun... had a bit of a lowside today on the bicycle cause I was just cornering it way too hard... lost the front wheel.

[Pillick]

I definitely agree with the others about cross-crediting into a design course or something. If you were passing courses in those two years then you are already most of the way there - hell of a waste to just chuck it away.

The BCGD course down here at Waikato is apparently nice and hands-on. You have probably done all the mathy-computer sciency bits already, so all thats left is the fun stuff with dreamweaver, photoshop, etc. Plus you get to do it in the brightest, shinyest, newest part of the campus.