Dean's Story

ON TRACK FOR SUCCESS

Dean O Neill from St Thomas More Catholic High school in Crewe is really on track for a successful career in I.T. after attending a one day a week work placement at Network Rail in Crewe.

During Deans placement in the IT helpdesk department Dean has been helping customers solve their IT problems.
 
Deans IT skills have greatly improved since working at Network Rail. He now has a good understanding of Microsoft Word, Assyst (the in-house helpdesk tool for logging calls), Postini (which resets passwords) and Connect (which is the home page for Network Rail).
Dean has also done fifteen on-line courses during his
time at Network Rail.

Dean has become part of the team and gets on very well with all members of staff and he has improved his communication skills and learned how to use his organisational skills in the workplace by managing his time and working within the working day to achieve a specific amount of work.

It surprised Dean to find out the I.T. department gets around 1000 calls a week. While working in the department he has become a valued member of the workforce taking calls from customers and helping them by using the tools available. Dean then asks for assistance from his colleagues where necessary. One customer noticed that Dean seemed very young and when Dean explained that he was on work experience, the customer was very impressed by Dean’s professional manner.

Mr Hughes, Dean’s form tutor from school, has noticed an improvement in Dean’s maturity and Dean has spoken to him in great detail about Assyst and other I.T. procedures. Dean is now also able to speak to his dad who works in the rail industry about rail issues that Dean didn’t understand before.
Dean has said that he now feels that school is real and he can see how important I.T. literacy and numeracy is in the workplace.

During a training course for new starters, Dean was invited to attend the course - he used his own initiative by helping the trainer to teach the new employees. Kevin Speed the team organiser has said, “Dean has been very useful to the company, this has changed the companies image of work experience.”

When I asked about why Dean enjoys his placement he  said that while his peers are in school he is helping people across the country with IT problems. Dean didn’t feel very switched on at school before his placement but now finds school enjoyable and can communicate better with his teachers.

Dean has been supported on placement by the Connexions personal advisor at school, Claire Peters. She feels that Deans’ placement has been successful because he is willing to get involved, and his enthusiasm means that he goes the extra mile to find out what he needs to know. This was apparent when Dean didn’t understand the role of the plotter, a large printer in the records department so he made a point of going to ask the department manager who showed Dean how to plot the railway against his house.