Dan has a bachelor’s degree in sacred art music, and he spent 13 years working as a chef.
“I’ve had an interest in computer science from a young age but until now I’ve never had the chanceto pursue it,” says Dan, who immigrated to New Zealand from Romania 11 years ago.
“Around 2019 I thought ‘now is my time’, so I enrolled to study the BAppIT at the Christchurch Campus.”
He knew nothing about programming when he started his studies, but it didn’t take long for the groundwork to be laid.
“During my time at Whitecliffe I built my first website and learnt a ton of programming languages such as C#, JAVA, Python, JavaScript, powerful IDEs, MySQL Workbench, Visual Studio Code, and PyCharm. I developed a sound knowledge of programming best practices, design, and planning, and gained the skills I needed to ‘Create Meaningful Change’. In my case, that meant an actual change of career!”
Whitecliffe’s Bachelor of Applied Information Technology produces graduates who can hit the ground running. An integral component of the three-year programme is an industry placement that enables students to gain real-world experience, and for Dan, it was a fast-track to success.
Now, thanks to his recently-gained Bachelor of Applied Information Technology, Dan has an exciting new career in a booming sector, and the future is looking brighter than ever.
