Bachelor’s degree in Norway

- Henrik Hansen - IT Network & Electronics Technology

What do you do if you don’t think that your AP Degree in IT Network & Electronics Technology from UCN - University College of Northern Denmarkis enough? You take an extra year in a Norwegian “Høgskole” and get a bachelor’s degree. What else?

That's what Henrik D. Hansen did when he graduated with and AP degree in IT Network & Electronics Technology from UCN - University College of Northern Denmark. He wanted to learn more about software development and the it was estimated by the Norwegian educational system that his exam from UCN was good enough to give him credit for the first two years of a three year engineering programme where he could specialise in software development.

“When I started at UCN - University College of Northern Denmark it was my plan to work within the media industry as a producer or the like, and I wanted to use my IT Network & Technology degree to gain further insight into the technical side of that industry. But I liked the programme and working with computers so much that I gave up that plan and rather quickly decided to continue within IT instead", says Henrik.

An educational time

Today, Henrik is 30 and he got into UCN - University College of Northern Denmark with a background of a Danish upper secondary higher technical exam and some years of working in the military police, a career which took him abroad twice as a stationed Danish soldier.

“It was very educational to continue on a Norwegian study programme. The year I spent there was almost like one large project where we worked on developing a piece of software that was to make people with no IT experience able to work on the internet. The idea was that the software was to be used to make banner ads, pop-up windows and questionnaire surveys. On this project we collaborated with a Norwegian media company, which would use the program after it was finished.”

“But of course it turned out that the project was too large and ambitious for us to make it in time, so we only managed to create the main system and the module for questionnaire surveys, says Henrik.

The first job

When the bachelor's degree was in the bag, Henrik returned to Denmark and got a job in a teaching company and later with TK-Data.

”We deliver overall IT solutions for businesses A typical client is a company that doesn't have an IT department of its own and is facing a large investment or expansion of its IT e.g. with a new financial system.

This is where we analyse the comapny’s needs, deliver the software, computers, servers and other hardware. We put it all up and make it work, implement the software and maintain it for the client afterwards. These are the kinds of projects I work on from the initial phases to the finish and maintenance”, says Henrik.