Throughout the past 5 months, I have learnt a lot that has helped prepare me for my future career. It has been a great experience working in a business and being involved in the work process.
WordPress
I have developed my WordPress skills significantly since I started, learning how to use appropriates themes and personalise them to suit my needs, and the functions of different plugins. Developing demo sites has massively helped me with experimenting what and what not to do when creating websites, and has given me confidence with creating my own website in the future.
These are a few of the demo sites I have worked on, which includes a construction placeholder website, a barber shop placeholder website which I worked on with Shahzaib, and my own personal coding course website.
3D Printer
Experimenting with the 3D Printer has been a fun learning experience, which we have built up our knowledge of it throughout the past 5 months. We have printed out different types of models, such as: cubes, flexible cats, phone holders, a dragon, and some models that are designed by us.
We have used different filament materials and colours throughout this placement. We have used colours such as: black, dark blue, pink, red, multi coloured gradients, and a shiny blue.
GitHub Websites
I have also developed HTML, CSS and JavaScript code during my time here for websites using Visual Studio Code and resources from the VWC GitHub. This involves ideas such as: a random website idea generator, website template downloader, and a WordPress helpful tips plugin.
I now feel much more confident with advancing my career in tech, as I have learnt a lot more of making websites and creating my own portfolio website. I have also seen how businesses run and how to manage and work with clients.
Hi, my name is Manraj and I am spending the week at CIC Village Web Company. I am doing digital marketing which means I am helping create and market to social media to help promote the brand. I am hoping to learn how to market successfully whilst I am here.
We have decided to further advance our 3D prints into a more colourful variety of models.
We have tried different types of filament for 3DA. So far, we have tried a multi-coloured material, a shiny blue material, and recently a pink material that also has a shine to it.
We have also expanded on the different type of objects we are printing. This involves more complex and detailed models, and also larger models. The baby dragon is the most complex object that we have printed, and the cat bowl is the largest that has been printed.
To advance even further, we wanted to design our own model to print, so we decided to create a square that has our logo engraved on it. This was accomplished using the software Inkscape and FreeCAD.
Recently, I have developed my skills on WordPress through my own personal project of creating a portfolio website, and applying these skills to other websites.
This is a part of my homepage on my portfolio website. This makes use of the navigation bar, which provides links to the corresponding pages, and the get in touch button.
My website uses the plugins: Ninja Forms, Wordfence Security, and WPvivid Backup. The contact page for my website was created using the Ninja Forms plugin.
This contact page is fully functional. The user is required to fill every field, and when the user submits the message, it gets sent to the submissions page on the admin dashboard for Ninja Forms, and it also gets sent to my email address inbox. The user also gets confirmation of the message being sent through their email inbox.
How have I applied this skill?
Understanding Ninja Forms has allowed me to apply this skill to a clients website to help build their contact page.
This contact page does not have the requirements for the email field and the phone field being filled, so the user can choose which information they want to give.
Hello, I’m Callum and I’ve started a placement at Village Web Company here in Romiley. When starting today, I was introduced to WordPress and the basics on how to use it. Claire was quite helpful with this and shown me step-by-step on how to add a post to the Village Web Company website. As apart of my induction, I was also shown other features in WordPress (such as plugins) and some cPanel features.
One of our website projects ideas is to have a website where the user can generate a website idea, an then can use one of our template websites to help develop their website idea. A website coding development course will also be integrated into this website, and will help the user know how to use template an transform it into any idea.
This is what the website currently looks like. The user is able to generate ideas, with the option to generate multiple amounts at the same time. There is also the option to download the ideas on a text file. There is also a template website that the user can download, that provides the user with a good starting point for building their website.
What’s next for development?
Allowing the user to preview the template website will be a good quality-of-life feature, and will be especially helpful for when there is multiple different website templates that the user can choose between.
The course feature is yet to be integrated into this website. The courses will take a lot of time to build, as it needs to contain all of the information needed for the user to develop the website they want.
I had an amazing experience working at Claire’s workplace, where I gained valuable insights and progressed in my studies. My knowledge of WordPress, including updating plugins, themes, and creating websites, has significantly improved, thanks to Claire and The Manchester College City Campus for providing this opportunity. The skills I’ve acquired not only benefited my studies but also expanded my overall knowledge. I’m eager to continue learning and would love to visit Village Web Company to further enhance my skills if the opportunity arises.
Hi, Sahil here. Today is my 3rd and last day at Village Web Company and honestly I have had a wonderful experience learning about how Claire runs her business while at the same time, also does community service by helping elderly people with any issues regarding digital technology which they have less knowledge about. I have also learnt a lot about a web content management system (CMS) called WordPress and how to update plugins and themes, create blog posts and create websites using it. I also learnt a bit about html and css and made a very simple website that displays a portfolio about me. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the experience of working in VWC and I look forward to working here again in the future or at places with similar aspirations.
Hi, my name is Heather, I’ve been working at the Village Web Company CIC for 4 days as a Digital Marketing Assistant. During my work experience, I assisted in creating and scheduling social media posts for the company’s various platforms using Canva and Buffer. I also took an active role in generating new ideas and concepts for content that would drive engagement and promote brand awareness. Through this experience, I gained valuable insights into social media strategy, including the importance of consistency and engaging with the target audience. This opportunity provided me with practical skills that will benefit me in the future of social media and marketing positions. Overall, I have really enjoyed the experience, the given tasks have boosted my confidence in my abilities. I hope to undertake similar roles in the future.
