Village Web Company CIC

Helping everyone make the most of the internet

Shahzaib’s final day at placement

3D Printer

315 hours are now over, I’ve done a lot in that time and learned a ton. One thing I learned at the village web company is using a 3D printer, this caught my attention as I thought it was very interesting. The 3D printer allowed us to print virtually anything however we were unsure how to use it at first as Claire had only recently got it so she was still trying stuff out. We started off by trying small cubes that had X Y Z on them that were called ‘calibration cubes’ these were used just to test the 3D printer to see if it worked, once it worked consistently we could start downloading things to print off a website called Thingy verse. Once we found something interesting on Thingy verse and made sure it was the right size we downloaded it as an STL file and then sent it to a program called Cura which could download it into the 3D printer and then begin printing. We also started to make our own designs on Tinker cad, I followed different tutorials to make certain items like a chess piece and then did my own designs but they weren’t very good.

WordPress

Aside from the 3D printer, I also started using WordPress, before coming here I had only heard of the name but absolutely no idea how to use it or what it even really was. I got taught how to use WordPress to update client websites and make backups of their websites. I also learned how to create my own websites and use various different themes as well as different useful plugins, I experimented with a few but later made websites that were far better than what I’ve done previously.

This is the most recent one that I have worked on alongside Matthew, I made the logo using Canva which is another skill that I have learned as before I only briefly used Canva but upon coming here I used it more regularly. We set up a booking system, we added a contact page using ninja forms and added various copyright free images from sites like Pixabay and Unsplash.

I also made some other websites, one for a portfolio of stuff I’ve done previously and also bought my own web domain to put that portfolio on there (shahzaibawan.co.uk) , I’ve made a gym website that I customised regularly and I also made a garden website that was more of an example gardening site. I changed one website into a complete blank state only adding sample images and text and made sure that it was essentially a template website.

Github

I have used GitHub before at college however I did not use it much so I even forgot some of the features, however upon arriving here I started to use GitHub to fork repositories and upload different code files that I had made.

I have even made a plugin for WordPress that was based off HelloDolly, I made it so that it would display some tips for using WordPress instead of song lyrics.

Conclusion

I have enjoyed coming here as I have learned a lot of useful things such as using WordPress, a better understanding of GitHub and using the 3D Printer. I have also learned how to interact with customers as when we first started I didn’t know what to say to customers and what to do but by the end I could easily welcome a customer in, take their info and I could also answer calls for Claire. I would recommend this work placement as I thoroughly enjoyed it.