Staff Spotlight: Jake Stokes, Creative Media and Computing Lecturer

Jake Stokes, Lecturer of Creative Media and Computing, is passionate about helping students to progress after College.  

Thanks to his own College experience, he understands the importance of learning vital transferrable skills for both the digital industries and everyday life. 

We spoke to him about his role, what he loves about teaching and the opportunities available on a Creative Media or Computing course at College.  

What do you enjoy about your role as a Lecturer? 

I enjoy my role in just watching students grow, whether that be giving them opportunities to thrive or seeing their path from starting College to when they leave.  

It’s a real privilege to see someone start on a Level 1 course, who then go all the way up to the end of Level 3 and then even go off to university afterwards. Watching growth overall, even personality wise as well, is a massive part of the job.  

What’s your favourite part overall about the Creative Media courses?  

I enjoy the freedom our courses give learners to express themselves in whatever kind of medium they want. This could be anything from films to games, websites to magazines, there’s that freedom express personal views on the world thanks to media.  

What inspired you to become a Lecturer at EKC Sheppey College?  

I got into teaching because of my own time at this College as a student. My Lecturer was very inspiring when I studied Level 3 Computing IT and suggested that teaching may be an option for me in the future.  

When this role came up, she got in contact and was so encouraging about how I should apply and help the next set of learners with my experience. From Day One I loved it ever since. 

How does your College experience influence our learners today? 

From my own College experience, I can see from the students’ perspective what their issues may be because I went through a lot of the same issues.  

Thanks to this I’m able to support with attendance issues or  if there’s confusion with work and deadlines. 

I feel like I’m in a better position to signpost learners as well to the support they need because I can understand firsthand what their situation is. 

What’s the favourite thing that you’ve taught the students this year?  

It would be honestly their research reports. Teaching them how to research properly and provide evidence for why they are going to make their projects, has helped direct them more.  

You can see that when they go out into the real world they’ll be able to apply these skills more eloquently because they have those experiences already that people are looking for.  

Is there a particular success story that you’re proud of? 

I had one student a couple of years ago who started at Level 2. They had just finished their IT qualification, and they were really struggling on where they wanted to go.  

Fortunately, we had an employer in the area at the time who was really good at working with students. They would take on quite a few students, but generally those who have completed a Level 3 course.  

He went through their selection process and impressed them so much that he started an apprenticeship there. He’s now completed it and is fully employed by the same company which is good to see.  

What is specialist about the Computing provision at College?  

We generally use the Computing courses to focus on digital skills, and then build up students’ confidence to progress onto Creative Media.  

They start exploring basic digital skills at the beginning, so like word processing and spreadsheets and using Microsoft software.  

Towards the end of the course you look into photo editing and digital graphics, to kind of give you a taste of what you would be doing during Creative Media and to help learners explore their options. 

What advice would you have for current students who are looking at getting a career in the Creative Media or Computing industries?  

The advice I would give, is that you always need to be looking for opportunities as it’s a competitive industry.  

There are a lot of people that decide to go freelance and this should be considered as an option.  

You also need to always be keeping up with new technology, new software and new techniques. If you can do this you will thrive.  

What advice would you have for new students who are thinking about starting in September but aren’t 100% sure?  

The advice I would give to new students is to first of all contact the College as we’re always free to talk to new prospective students. 

Come to your taster days as they are a great way to experience what College is like.  

Explore the website to see what courses you can do as there’s lots of transferrable skills across all of our subject areas.  

Thank you to Jake for sharing his experiences. If you’re interested in Computing, Creative Media or another of our subject areas, explore your options today.