Zero to AutoCAD in three days

Hi, I’m Charlotte, I’m 42 and I started working at Armada as a Training Co-ordinator in January 2018.

When I started here I had heard of several of the applications we train in, but didn’t have enough information to be able to guide people as to which was the best course for them to take.

I’ve always been curious about AutoCAD and, as AutoCAD Essentials is one of our most popular courses, I felt that this would be a good one to attend to get a grasp of what this software is about.

On the first day of the course I arrived at our venue and bagged myself a desk at the back, as I was sure that I wouldn’t understand anything that was happening. I didn’t want to hold the class back or have anyone see me bumbling my way through exercises that the trainer asked us to complete.

The course instructor, Carl, began the session and I soon realised that I was not only keeping up but I was doing pretty well. I followed all his instructions and found myself grinning with excitement as I was well able to do everything he asked.

Lunch was yummy and gave us all a chance to chat about what we had learned that morning and discuss how we felt things were going. Pretty good seemed to be the verdict all round!

When I think of training courses, I get flashbacks to the school classroom and being lectured by world-weary teachers. Let me tell you, Armada’s AutoCAD courses are nothing like that. Carl led us through the exercises, entertaining us with stories about his life, work, guitar, shed and car! We laughed with him and I felt that there was a strong sense of achievement amongst our group of learners.

On the second day, some arrived early as they had questions which related to the day before. All questions were answered with flair and jocularity, before we began our foray into the second day of learning.

We covered some of the fundamental techniques you need to know – how to draw a circle, fillet a corner, create straight lines, reproduce the previous command with just a couple of keystrokes – and then we drew funny faces! A great mix between serious and fun, once again punctuated by Carl’s funny anecdotes.

On the final day of the course we drew out an office, then changed it to a house by shifting a few things around. My sense of achievement was enormous. Just 3 days previously I had zero knowledge of AutoCAD and now I felt ready to take on the world! (Well, to re-design my garden, but Rome wasn’t built in a day people!)

And all too soon it was the end. I said goodbye to the other learners and I had to put my Training Co-ordinator hat on once more and ready the room for the course beginning the next morning. I will, however, always have the knowledge that was shared with me on those days in that room, the vital information that will help me to be able to say to new learners, “Yes! AutoCAD Essentials is the course for you, you can do it even if you have zero experience……I did!”

Charlotte