A COMPUTER science student from Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) has made an exciting step in his career after securing a prestigious degree apprenticeship with technology giants Cisco Systems.

Philip Hannah, 20 from Basingstoke, started his degree apprenticeship with Cisco in July after excelling in completing a Level 3 Diploma in Information Technology at BCoT earlier this year.

As part of his degree apprenticeship, Philip will gain a university degree upon completing the three-year programme.

Speaking about his new apprenticeship, Philip said: "Having the chance to study a degree-level apprenticeship with Cisco is really exciting.

"The apprenticeship will take three years in total and I will get the chance to try lots of different parts of the company across their sites in Reading and Feltham. I hope to build my career moving up the ranks at Cisco."

Lecturers and teaching staff from BCoT's computer science department were on hand to support Philip with his application, something Philip says was a big help during the application process.

He added: "My teachers have been really helpful with my apprenticeship application. They have always been happy to give feedback on my PowerPoint presentation and my CV throughout the process".

After leaving Aldworth School in Basingstoke, Philip says the computer science course at BCoT was the perfect next step after secondary education.

He added: "The course was so much better suited to what I wanted to do for my career. I got more into computer science after studying ICT at GCSE and the variety of units in my course at BCoT was so much better compared to other colleges".

Anthony Bravo, principal of BCoT, said: "98.4 per cent of our students progress to university, employment or further study and Philip is a fantastic example of that. We are really proud of what he has achieved at BCoT and wish him the very best for his future career at Cisco."