Student Spotlight - Torin, Islay

Torin studied with UHI Argyll in Islay, read about his experience of studying with us below.

Torin started his journey with UHI Argyll when he was in S4 at Islay High School. With hopes to study gaming at Abertay University in the future, he enrolled on the Digital Media course which is offered through the Skills for Work programme.

After completing the course, Torin began to think about his future. With no designated ICT programme available at school, he worked out that if he completed a HNC through UHI Argyll, he could meet the entry requirements needed to study his desired course at university. Torin expressed his interest to the school, who agreed he could study the Digital Design and Web Development HNC part-time over his next two years in S5 and S6.

The course built upon the foundations covered in the Digital Media course, with modules on topics such as HTML and CSS and included projects which involved designing websites based around specific colour palettes. Torin also enjoyed the video module, where he learnt about filming, composition and how to edit footage. After getting to grips with the basics, the students were then challenged with a five-week timeline to make a film!

Unfortunately a lot of Torin’s study happened during Covid, but he praises how supportive and understanding his lecturers were, and how readily available they made themselves via email, regularly checking in on him to see how he was getting on. Whilst other areas of his education were disrupted by home study, Torin said the transition to home learning with UHI Argyll was very smooth due to delivering networked courses pre-pandemic.

In his sixth year, Torin successfully completed his course and applied to university. He was thrilled that all his hard work had paid off and received a conditional offer from Abertay University to study Games Development and Production. However rather than start in the midst of the pandemic, he chose to sit it out and defer for a year.

Torin is due to start university this September and we wish him the best of luck!