Information Technology

Nga Mihi Akonga! (Hello potential BizTech Student)

Ko au, DC!  My name is DC Harding.  I’m of Ngai Tahu decent and currently live in the mighty Waikato!  Up the Chiefs!

Part of my role here at Vision College is to assist you in achieving all your academic goals and milestones.  Whether it’s to further your education, work towards a career or gain NCEA L1-3 and head off to University, we can do it all! What I enjoy most about my role here at Vision College is the ability to help change lives through learning.  My personal mantra, “since we’re here, let’s elevate” governs my role within the Business School.  It is my intention to help students elevate from the point of introduction to graduation.

I have a Diploma in Social Work, a Certificate in Small Business Management and I have my own business focusing on “entertainment and social media management”.  During my career I was the CEO for “give a little, GIVE A LOT Charitable Trust”, a nation wide charity whose focus was to help families who have children that have been diagnosed with terminally ill sicknesses.  I’m currently completing my Bachelors of Education through Te Wananga O Aotearoa!

I’m a keen musician!  In 2014, I won a Los Angeles Music Award for being the top Male Pop Artist in the world - I love to play the piano and perform on the world stage from time to time!  I love to travel and experience new things.  I’ve travelled to 4 different countries around the world and intend to travel to a new country each year.

I am a trained and experienced teacher with a Masters from Waikato University, and have spent over 17 years teaching IT at various levels. Enthusiastic and creative I craft my course to cover cutting edge and new technologies. The small classes and a flexible syllabus means we can rapidly change our content to meet the fast changing needs in the Software workforce, and that’s what makes it fun.  Programming may be complex, but it is never boring.

When  my fingers are prised away from the keyboard I enjoy the outdoors from running to tramping to cycling and exploring the countryside. You need to be physically fit to be mentally sharp; and three words that best describe me are: Enthusiastic, -  I love software and programming; Autodidactic – it’s the essence of a software developer, you have to be a self learner; and Creative – I love change and new experiences, software is always on the move and there are so many avenues to explore, that time is the greatest enemy.

Jeffrey completed his computer science degree at Cardiff University and his masters degree in computer engineering at Nanyang Technological University. He has been working at Vision College as a web tutor since 2007. He appreciates the practise of Christian values within the college. His academic interests include ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, object-oriented methodologies, web usability and computer algorithms. Jeffrey’s passion is to impart his web development skills to his web students for their career advancement and be successful in life. In his leisure time, Jeffrey likes swimming, enjoys church life and watches EPL soccer. 

Hi, my name is Val. I have a Bachelor of Applied Information Systems - Majoring in training and a Post Graduate diploma in Computing - Majoring in Training. What I most enjoy about my role at Vision College, is the pleasure I gain in seeing people achieving, albeit – in the units or just having confidence in themselves. People have described me as being caring, passionate and cheeky. I enjoy spending time with family, gardening, antique china, little theatre and competition badminton. I travel to Australia every year for a five day tournament with 4-500 women competing and last year in Melbourne we won our grade. Lastly I love to travel.

Mahendra has been with Vision College since late 2015 as a tutor for Computing and Business Administration courses. Has over 20 years of work experience in various industries including Infotech, Broadcast & Narrowcast.

He is passionate about New Media and Social Media management and applications in both commercial and personal domains. Believes in disruptive technologies, sourcing/sharing life experiences, and learning as facilitating the process. Music has been a common denominator in his life.

My name is Ashley and I work in the NZBAT team. I come from South Africa and I arrived in New Zealand in 2010. I am a Vision College graduate and I loved every minute of my study here. I come from a background of sporty but nerdy parents so I have always had a good understanding of computers. I love most sports like rugby and cricket but I am a die hard Manchester United fan which makes football my favourite sport. I have an amazing wife and beautiful baby girl, both of them are my favourite parts of life. I am a Christian and attend Activate Church Hamilton, where I am in charge of the intermediates team.

People have described me as enthusiastic, a team player and trustworthy. The friendly and helpful nature of my colleagues at Vision College, East Tamaki campus, has inspired me a lot. I am passionate about teaching students with different culture and nationality. Students have bigger dreams and career aspirations and one of the most rewarding feelings of teaching is seeing a spark on a student’s face once they learn how to apply the knowledge they learnt in the classroom. The college management is constantly concerned about the quality of the education service we provide and they are quite serious and focused towards the goal of the institution. I have gained the following qualifications, PhD Running (Cloud Computing & E-Government), Auckland University of Technology, MSc. Information System Engineering, Himalayan Institute of Science & Technology, BE Electronics and Communication, Khwopa Engineering College. Outside work, I enjoy travelling, playing and listening music and sports.

Hi. I have recently joined Vision and thoroughly enjoy seeing the progress in student's abilities especially in the practical aspect of classwork. I have the following qualifications and work experience: Msc Computer Science and working on PhD in Computer Science; I’m majoring  in Natural Language Processing in short texts and have 5 years experience in system and database administration roles.

People describe me as hardworking, a team player and friendly, and I am an outdoors person that enjoys swimming, playing soccer, running, cycling and mountain climbing.

I’ve been with Vision College since September 2015 as a tutor in the IT and Business schools. My past experience has seen me work in many industries, from telecommunications to Government departments, predominantly in customer service roles. This experience and my computer skills make me a perfect fit for the work I now do. I consider myself to be knowledgeable, honest and reliable. I thrive on seeing others succeed in their studies and find great satisfaction in seeing a student’s confidence grow with each new skill they master. An avid fan of new technology and gaming I previously did a weekly radio show via FreeFM 89.0 and won a New Zealand Radio Award in the process. Since starting with Vision College I’ve also gained my National Certificate in Adult Education and Training.

I am friendly, enthusiastic and passionate about equipping you with the skills to succeed. I am myself a graduate of Vision College with a Dip in Web Design and a  Dip in Christian Leadership, after graduating I worked in the IT industry for several years before starting my own Web development company which I still run part-time. The thing I enjoy most about Vision is the community feel we have on Campus and the space that provides for everyone to belong. In my spare time, I can usually be found on a horse either down at the river or practicing my mounted archery skills! My husband and I also pastor a small Church where we are passionate about sharing our faith and seeing people grow and flourish. 

After a degree with a double major in Chemistry I began a long career in education including some Level 200 and 300 papers in Education.  As part of my teaching practice I enthusiastically developed computer skills being part of a group of Area Schools first using them to teach subjects at a distance when this was very much cutting edge.

I see technology as a powerful tool but always requiring a valid connection to its purpose.  It is not an end in itself.

For many years now I have enjoyed teaching adults and helping them see the purpose and advantages of the computer as a tool.

I now work part time for Vision College enjoying delivering some of the NZBAT with Sarah Chalmers.

I have the role of National Administrator as well as International Coordinator at Vision College. I consider myself to be an extremely hard worker, loyal to my job, friends and family and I like to work within set boundaries and systems.

I have worked nearly 40 years in a variety of admin roles from local Councils, traffic department in Auckland, Westpac Bank, a charitable trust that works in Outdoor Education to tertiary level education. So although I don’t have the piece of paper that gives me a qualification in this area, I have picked up lots of skills over the years through working for these various organisations.

I enjoy my role at Vision College because its varied in content, it is extremely busy and I like being part of a team that enables other people to better themselves through education and achieve things they never thought possible.

I enjoy reading, knitting, gardening, walking and watching movies. In another lifetime I was a keen tramper (low level), skier, kayaker along with other outdoor activities. And I love Casper, a Bichon Friese dog!

MProfPrac (Business Management), BAppMgt, Dip WWW, Adv DipMgt, NCAE

Gary has been equipping and developing people for over 25 years, both teaching as well as leading and managing. Gary loves encouraging staff and students in their learning and development, within a culture of continuous improvement. He enjoys the blessing of living in Godzone and spending time alone in the great outdoors. Gary lives by the mantra: “Be enthusiastic as a leader. You can’t light a fire with a wet match.” and is also on fire for Christ!

Jatinder is an ISTQB certified Tester, Software Developer and Tutor. He has over 11 years of experience working in various roles such as Educator, Software Developer, Test Analyst and Project Manager/Business System Analyst. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree from Punjab Technical University, India. Currently, he is  under the process of enrolling in PhD major in Natural language, Machine learning and Text Mining at Auckland University of Technology.

He always emphasises on implementing novel logics to resolve complex software problems and coming up with unbeatable reasons and processes. He enjoys teaching at Vision college and encourages the students, to think out of box. He is utilising his industry experience in the class room so that the pupils can gain knowledge of real scenarios, because he believes, “the art of teaching is the art of assisting discoveries”.

Apart from his professional life, he loves activities such as, cooking, travelling, photography, driving and hiking.