Hello, my name is Gloria and I study Computer Science with a Digital Apprenticeship (with PwC). For my first post I’m going to talk about why I chose this course as it’s something that definitely isn’t publicised enough for what it is!
I knew I wanted to do Computer Science since around Year 11 when I noticed the degree/skill of computer science fuelled a lot of the cool new aspects of the modern day. Being from London (and being quite nervous but also very keen too move away from home), I wanted to move to a city for university in the hope that I would feel less home sick.
I had gone to some open days which were lovely but the ‘vibe’ was very calm and quiet and I’m used to the crowded, busy, eventful city of London. Birmingham therefore appealed a lot. The campus was really big and the area around Old Joe was really your ‘typical’ university look and I knew I could see myself there. My mother wasn’t keen because Birmingham looked just as frantic and ‘distracting’ as London but for me that was attractive. The course at Birmingham looked very productive and I especially liked the choice of modules for Third Year which I am yet to experience but there is a large range and I will be able to focus on some skills I’ve looked forward to since secondary school. After looking around, my mum discovered the Degree Apprenticeship I now do.
The DA program that I do with PwC means I do the same Computer Science course as everyone else but get work placements, fees paid and experience throughout. I didn’t know much about the accounting firm but upon research and luckily acceptance onto the program, I learnt it’s an extremely versatile, influential and valuable company.
The combination of the very high ranking of the University of Birmingham, the choice of modules and the apprenticeship was an amazing opportunity. I think whether or not you chose to do the degree apprenticeship, Birmingham is a great university for my course. On my course in particular it is very challenging but there is also a lot of support – we have several lab sessions to ask for help, tutorials, lecturer office hours, and personal tutors to go to when we are struggling in particular or need someone to talk to. There is also a wellbeing officer and lecturers are quite sympathetic so when things get especially hard you should never easily feel hopeless. The older years are also easy to get a hold of for advice and an insight in to what comes next.
The Computer Science building/computer labs are also open to students of the course 24/7 which is not common for a lot of departments and really comes in handy with awkward sleeping routines or fast approaching deadlines when the library is not always ideal.
I am very happy with my decision to study here – the atmosphere of the city of Birmingham and the amount I have improved my coding skills since Year 13 makes all of the (very) hard work here worth it!
