The lifelong learner

Mick Winnett chose work when he left school in 1970. However just last week the 58-year-old father-of-two had the honour of graduating top of his Information Systems Management degree class in Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) and is now continuing his education in the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) with an MBS in e-commerce. Mick, who is married to Coosan native Mary Henshaw, has a full two-year schedule in front of him that includes a challenging commute three-days-a-week for him and ongoing support from his family, but speaking to the Westmeath Independent after his conferral last Friday he says he's feeling "pretty good". Mick described his early life and education in his native London as "a little chaotic". He attended seven different primary schools and three secondary schools. Bowing out of the system at 17 with three O levels, he spent some time working abroad in both Israel and Belgium before returning to work on everything from building sites to the civil service to installing wood floors in London. In the late 70s Mick met his wife Mary, who went on to become a primary school teacher. Meanwhile Mick, who says he has "always been good with my hands", started his own business in 1984 supplying and laying wood floors. It was this business that sparked his interest and indeed talent in the IT area. "Right from the start I did all my paperwork on the computer and I learned to use spreadsheets, databases and word processors," he says. He even set up a website for his company, something very few companies did in those days. "I wrote my own pages in html, and uploaded my own images," he explains. "I used free software to submit my site to search engines, learnt about meta tags and search engine optimisation, as well as paying a subscription to a search company who guaranteed me a place on their first page of hits. "As time went on my site got a good ranking on the major search engines, and eventually I was able to stop all paid advertising and rely solely on internet enquiries and returning customers for all my business." In Mick's personal life, things were also moving forward. He and his wife Mary adopted two babies - a little girl from Guatemala and a little boy from Texas - and decided to move from London to Mary's hometown of Athlone. The move was primarily to give children Jackelin and Liam, now 15 and eleven respectively, "a better childhood than we felt they might expect in inner London". Mary was also hankering to return to the identical twin she had been separated from at that point for 20 years. Returning in 2006, Mick and Mary bought an old stone labourer's cottage on a half-acre site in The Pigeons just outside Athlone. Mick's skill with his hands came to the fore again, as he set about renovating and expanding the new family home with help from local craftsmen and his in-laws the Henshaw family who he says were "always there to lend a hand when needed". Mick says he's never regretted moving to Athlone, and knows it "pretty well" because of visits since the late 70s. "It's a very underestimated place," he says. "I think geographically there's nowhere better situated, but it doesn't really get a fair slice of the cake." The family home project finished, Mick says focus returned to his lifelong wish to further his education. "I have always had an interest in computing ever since I bought my first Sinclair ZX81, so I applied for a three year Science degree in AIT in Computer Networking Administration," he says. "I'll never forget going for my interview and Marcus Rahilly (Head of the Department of Electronics, Computer and Software Engineering at AIT) saying to me that frankly he doubted if I'd be able to handle the maths on the course. Luckily they were short of applicants so he let me in! He was wrong about the maths, although I found it terribly hard, and I was fortunate to have an excellent teacher in Frank Doheny who managed to get me through the three years with straight As." Modules in business studies during the course appealed to Mick, who also performed well in them, and lecturer Seamus Ryan suggested a business course as the next step. "I graduated with good marks in my Level 7, passed my Cisco CCNA and looked for a Level 8 IT course," Mick, who thinks the AIT course was excellent, says. An acceptance was soon forthcoming, for an Information Systems Management course in GMIT. "The course at GMIT was demanding, and travel was a little difficult," Mick admits, "but I found that if I left home at around 6am I could be in GMIT car park before 7.30am without any traffic problems, and I was able to go in and have a computer lab all to myself until 9am and get a bit of work done every morning." It was this work ethic that not only got him through the year-long course, but scooped him an award as top student in the class. "It felt pretty good," he admits. On why he picked up the accolade, he suggests that in general, mature students tend to be "a bit more dedicated" not least because they usually don't have the same love and life distractions of younger students. However he's also quick to commend his family's role in his success. "My wife and the children obviously have had to do without a lot of time I would otherwise have spent with them," he says, adding that he's been blessed with "huge family support". Now Mick is in the middle of an experience in a third educational facility, as he works through his two-year programme in NUIG. The course means renewed commitment from everyone, and an even earlier start from Athlone three days a week. A six-month work placement will also follow next April, which Mick is taking up with networks company HEAnet in Dublin. As for the future, he says it's a difficult time to predict that right now, particularly with what's happening with the Euro. "A lot depends on how Ireland recovers, but really all I can do is get better and better qualified," he says. To be fair to him, he's doing a better than good job at that!