Gisborne woman Julianne Edwards was able to transform her favourite activities into a lucrative career.

Apart from computing, Julianne loves working with children, and was able to combine the two after completing the Bachelor of Computing Systems degree at EIT Tairāwhiti.
She had already completed a diploma in computing, and because she was able to complete the remainder of her studies in Gisborne without leaving home and family, she carried on her pathway.
Before “going back to school” she had a job in a pre-school centre but wanted to earn a tertiary qualification.

She had already studied advanced 3D animation in Auckland, and loved working with computers.

Julianne had enjoyed EIT’s one-year diploma course, now a NZ certificate programme, so much, that she decided to go further and achieve the degree.

It introduced her to other facets of  computer technology, from computer infrastructure to core programming, data, and database administration, analytics, IT Management, and software development, opening up a wide variety of possible careers.

In her second year her industry placement on a help desk was at the Gisborne District Council, where she gained some hands-on experience.

The final stage of her degree studies was an IT internship of almost four months at Gisborne’s Mind Lab, now the Tōnui Collab.

Julianne describes the internship as an amazing experience. She helped teach children a range of subjects including robotics, animation, engineering, science
and coding (the language of computers). “I really enjoyed working with children,” she said. Teaching them her favourite subjects came naturally, to the point that Mind Lab offered her a job as soon as she completed her Bachelor of Computing Systems degree.

At present she is taking time out from working with other children, having recently acquired one of her own, sixweek- old Gabriel. With the help of her
husband, she plans to continue her career when Gabriel is a bit older.

Studying at EIT was one of the best things she ever did, she says. The class sizes are relatively small, students became friends, and the lecturers were like part of the family.