George Madgett

George and his father Jan Madgett want to share their story hoping that it will inspire anyone with autism to go and grab their dream.

George started talking at the age of 7. After receiving lots of support at Mintlaw Academy he stayed on for a further year at the end of Year 6 to take some additional classes in preparation for College.

George explains, “Having spent a lot of time previously on my iPad and PlayStation my interest was in gaming software and white hacking – that’s cyber security. I knew that I wanted to go down the computing route, but I’d no real training for this and the closest class in this area available at school was Engineering Science which I enjoyed.”

George and his dad attended one of the College’s previous Open Days to look at Fraserburgh Campus and held lengthy conversations with College staff to what level of support would be available. He enrolled on the HNC Computing course.

George said, “The student support team were amazing. I’m not gonna lie my first few weeks were quite scary – new people, place and staff but they were so nice that by the second or third week I was good. Over the last year I’ve had additional support – more time on tests, use of technologies to help my understanding and additional time from my lecturers if I got stuck. And now I have my A grade HNC.”

George’s father Jan shares his own view of his son’s time at College. He says, “ The year at NESCol has been phenomenal for George. The change in him has been incredible – his confidence has rocketed. He has become more independent with the ability to travel on public transport and I have seen a huge improvement in his communication skills, both written and language. He fought hard to do a lot of the work himself and he was encouraged to go and seek out the solutions for himself during his HNC, which he was more than capable of doing.”

George said, “I am so much happier, braver and have become so much more independent. I’ve decided to take a year out and explore YouTube. With all the knowledge I now have I want to see if I can make this work for me – reviewing games and gaming tips. I might then go back to College  to study an HND. By sharing my experience I hope I can inspire anyone with autism.”