Mamoon is a master’s student at the Department of International Development. Early in the academic year, Mamoon came across the Digital Skills Lab (DSL) and started his extensive digital learning journey. His intellectual curiosity and desire to learn combined with dedicated support from the DSL team meant that Mamoon gained proficiency in data mining, data cleaning, data visualisation, coding languages and programming – all within the space of nine months.
Mamoon’s early motivation was to acquire solid Excel skills, so he enrolled in Excel workshops. While attending the in-person workshops, he met Nedelin Velikov, Learning Development Lead at the Digital Skills Lab. Nedelin provided advice on additional skills beneficial for his master’s, dissertation and career aspirations. Under Nedelin’s mentorship, Mamoon expanded his learning to include statistics, visualisation and coding and attended practical workshops in R, Stata, Power BI, Tableau, Python and SQL.
“I feel lucky to have discovered the Digital Skills Lab early in the academic year, so that I could learn as many tools as I needed and be guided by experts in the skills that would help me with my studies and future career.”
Throughout the academic year, Mamoon attended 110 Digital Skills Lab sessions! Although his initial intention was to learn Excel, the additional skills he learned subsequently complimented his studies at the Department of International Development and ultimately helped him to efficiently incorporate data analysis and visualisation in his assignments and dissertation.
For his dissertation on the subject of health finance and based on quantitative data, Mamoon found Excel and Stata particularly helpful. He also learned to use LaTeX, to help with writing his dissertation and is planning to use Power BI and Tableau to publish and illustrate his findings.
“At the Digital Skills Lab workshops, everyone can learn at their own pace. The facilitator helps you to get it right without giving you the answer. It’s a great practical way to learn in a collaborative environment and I have found this approach intellectually stimulating. The sessions were all excellent.”
With proficiency in data tools, Mamoon was able to identity which tool(s) will get the better outcome and enable him to execute specific tasks more efficiently.
His diverse skills set has enabled flexibility and dexterity in using different tools, which has been instrumental in his job search. Mamoon has so far secured multiple interviews, including several for research positions, within the International Development organisations sector, where skills in programming languages, Power BI and Excel are in high demand.
“The skills I have learned with the Digital Skills Lab have no doubt contributed to the success of my studies and have opened so many doors in terms of job prospects.”
Mamoon’s journey with the Digital Skills Lab shows the importance of early engagement with digital skills training as well as the value of a structured learning path combined with expert guidance. His experience highlights the transformative impact of digital skills on academic and career success.
Inspired? Browse DSL workshops here.