Charlie has progressed through a range of computing courses at NESCol, whilst excelling at events and competitions across the UK.

21-year-old Charlie Priestley moved up to Aberdeen from England nine years ago. He was home-educated and always planned to come to NESCol, but was unsure about what course to choose.

He said, “My older brother studied computing, and I thought it made sense to do the same. I originally wanted to do software development and started to teach myself basic programming skills.”

Computing at NESCol

Charlie enrolled on the introductory course in 2020, before progressing to the SCQF Level 5 course the following year.

He said, “I didn’t enjoy the software development part of the course as much as I expected. However, I did enjoy Paul Butter’s style of lecturing, and he inspired me to switch to networking. I started off not knowing anything about the subject!”

Despite the change in specialism, Charlie continued to flourish at College. He completed his HNC in Computing (NextGen) last year and is set to finish his HND in Networking & Cloud Infrastructure (NextGen) this summer.

He said, “NESCol is a great learning environment with facilities like the library.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have never needed it, but I knew that there was support available if I was struggling. Paul Butters is very mental health forward and incredibly supportive.”

Working at NESCol

Charlie has been working at NESCol’s IT Helpdesk since August, juggling this alongside his studies.

He said, “Getting the helpdesk job has been a great experience for me. I support the College community with IT issues like connecting to the WiFi, password resets, Microsoft Office help and software problems.

“A highlight was helping to train a neurodivergent student who was gaining work experience. This was my first time being a supervisor and it felt impactful to be able to help someone.”

Computing competitions

As well as studying computing, Charlie has competed in a number of competitions based around digital skills.

He achieved two silver medals at the WorldSkills UK national finals: one in 2023 for the IT Network Systems Administration category and another in 2024 for the IT Support Technician category. His success secured him a place on the WorldSkills UK training squad, with hopes of representing the nation at WorldSkills Shanghai in 2026.

He said, “It wasn’t until I was sitting down at the WorldSkills competitions, and actually needed to use my skills, that I realised how much I had learned at NESCol. I honestly don’t think university could have taught me the skills I have learned here.”

Last year, Charlie also competed in RGUHack alongside fellow student Amanda Wallis. The team won the RGU School of Computing challenge which involved designing a new website for Duthie Park.

Future plans

As well as training for WorldSkills 2026, Charlie has big plans for after College.

He said, “I have applied to study Cyber Security at RGU next year and plan to teach computing at NESCol alongside this. I also hope to start a computing business with some of the people that I have met at College.”