Unlike most people, my life didn’t take a direct path. After graduating high school I became a labourer while all of my friends went to tafe or university. Then I changed my career a couple of times, and I even had a crack at owning my own business. I didn’t even get married until I was 40, which is a little unusual I guess. Anyway, recently I was sponsored by my employer to up-skill and take a web design course in the Melbourne CBD.

Look, I’ll admit it, I was terrified at first. The most education I’d had since I was sixteen was a hospitality certificate and a couple of IT courses which were unregistered. Going back to school to do a proper diploma was daunting for me as a mature aged student. They say that when you get to my age your brain doesn’t retain new information like it used to, and that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But, I didn’t really have much choice. I had to do this course for my employer, and after all, it wasn’t costing me anything, so I decided to give it my best shot.

Taking the course in Melbourne went much better than I expected. You’d think that software development degrees are one of the hardest (and perhaps they are), but really, you don’t need any former knowledge before you begin. In a way, I had this advantage over the younger generation taking the course because I’d already worked in the IT industry. Also, it really wasn’t all that hard to learn new skills. Perhaps I was a little slower at learning but I was more mature too, which meant I had better focus and attention span. I learnt a lot about web development and applications that I didn’t know before and brought a lot of new skills back with me when I returned to my job. Just goes to show that it’s never too late to learn.