Durham Dad Wins £2000 in SkillsTrain Competition

Luton, United Kingdom, December 26, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Christmas came early for Peter Bell from County Durham when he received a phone call from his home study provider, SkillsTrain, to say he’d won £2000 cash as first prize in a national competition to find the student whose life has most improved this Christmas.

35-year-old Peter Bell, from Alnwick Road in Durham, is studying web design with SkillsTrain, the UK’s leading supplier of distance learning IT courses, a challenge which he manages to combine with family life and a salaried job.

With little or no experience in IT, he embarked on the SkillsTrain CIW course a year ago and is now in demand from local businesses to design and build websites and to run evening classes in computing and web design.

Mr. Bell’s winning entry detailed his success in designing his first commercial website and the interest he’s receiving from other businesses.

Hearing of his win he said, “This has come at exactly the right time. My web design business is taking off and now with this win I’ll be able to treat the family this Christmas. I can’t thank SkillsTrain enough”.

A spokesperson for SkillsTrain said “This was a very well deserved win by Peter who demonstrated out of the thousands of entries we received that he put his energy into studying for a new career, while holding down his job and supporting a family. Our sincere congratulations go to him and we wish him success with his web designing”.

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Peter Bell’s entry to the SkillsTrain Christmas 2009 competition read as follows: -
“As I’m looking through the children's Christmas present list no longer do I have to worry about the growing credit card bill. I’ve just sold my first web site and the money is going to go a long way.

“My journey began last year when I made the best decision of my life and decided to hop on the skills train. My previous background was in education but I only had some minor IT qualifications so learning web design from scratch was going to be a challenge. But with the expertise and support of my tutor team, clear teaching resources and a few hours a week from me, I have made good progress.

“Now a year later I’m capable of designing highly marketable websites.
I’m now designing the website for my neighbour’s business and the local Indian takeaway and I’m paid well. Anyone who has a business wants a website so the customer base is endless.

“My new skills are in demand as I’ve been contacted to run evening classes in computing and web design. In January I’m doing this two nights a week, which is allowing me to afford my new car payments.

“I look back to last Christmas, working for other people, being under appreciated, under paid and overworked. Now I look to the future, as shortly I will be able to hand in my resignation from my day job and work from home as a web designer. Nothing is going to give me greater pleasure.

“So it’s going to be a very merry Christmas for all my family and a new year with endless possibilities.

“I cannot understand why I didn’t do the course earlier!”

SkillsTrain press contact: Mary Stuart-Miller 01403 738844, m.stuart-miller@virgin.net