Postgraduate Certificate in Information Technology and Master of Information Technology

Meet Michael who completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Information Technology and Master of Information Technology from the Auckland ICT Graduate School Programme.

Michael comes from a very strong background in the Arts studies and a talent for opera singing. However, he soon decided that he wanted to diversify his expertise and pursue areas of interest in technology, but was hesitant to commit to another three-year undergraduate. Thankfully for him, a friend came across the Auckland ICT Graduate School programmes and recommended it to him as an option.

Michael went into his internship believing he would be streamlined into one area of IT as a programmer, but was pleasantly surprised at the variety he was afforded and eventually pursued a path towards becoming a data analyst. He also felt he was originally just pursuing this path as an alternative to his singing, but ended up thoroughly enjoying his experience throughout.

He particularly enjoyed his learning experience during the programme, making note of the very practical approach that provided the perfect learning style for him in the Postgraduate Certificate, and that was supported by the excellent structure of the course regarding the ideal ratio of tutors to students. The Masters experience was also similar in that he enjoyed the soft skills that he developed through complementary papers to his data-mining focus. He also noted his belief that he would never take business papers, but really enjoyed taking them in conjunction with his IT papers.

The internship experience has been extremely important to Michael in opening opportunities for him at Kiwibank, as well as gaining significant interest from many recruiters in his exploits during this programme. Furthermore, he notes the understanding he gained of GDPR during his internship has been incredibly useful with his current position at Data Insights that he acquired after graduation.

Michael believes that the Auckland ICT Graduate School Programme is not something that is restricted to just IT and Computer Science Majors and that anyone with a keen enough interest in pursuing IT can succeed in this programme. He also stresses that IT and technology’s importance to the future of the workforce makes it a very attractive proposition for everyone.