Case Studies: The Engineer

As a child in Sierra Leone, Akiwale Akiwumi knew he wanted to become an electronics engineer. He says that the curiosity which lead him to constantly take apart electronic appliances and gadgets helped him to analyse and build circuits.

Civil war in Sierra Leone made Akiwale decide to study in England. After completing A levels in Statistics and Pure Mathematics he decided to do a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Electronics.

Akiwale said: “Choosing the HND was a good decision. At the end of my first year, consistency, hard work  and the drive to achieve a good diploma began to pay off. My grades had improved and my confidence grew. By the end of the final year I had achieved distinctions in almost all my units.”

With his HND Akiwale was able to go straight into the third year of a BSc in Electronic Engineering at Middlesex University. Now he hopes to specialise in telecommunications and go on to postgraduate study in microwave communication systems.