User:Mattybennett

Matthew Bennett (IT Trainer and author)

Matthew Bennett (1975-)[1] is a trainer, teacher, academician and author. Matthew Bennett is also the owner and Director of MBIT Training Ltd, a UK based IT technical corporate training company, supporting a range of other training companies by offering expert, niche IT technical information.

Matthew Bennett is the author of the CompTIA A+ certification guide and also the CompTIA Network+ study guide (indie).

Matthew Bennett was born in Coventry, England. His father, John Bennett is the owner of Paperchase Printing, a lithographic and label-printing company originally based in Coventry and fundamnetally supported business across the West Midlands and Warwickshire. Matthew studied at the University of Glamorgan, with a BA (Hons) Humanities, focussing in Media Studies and Theatre & Media Drama. He apprenticed at Coventry Cable TV and BBC CWR. From here and with his obsession with the TV Show Dr Who, he used his passion as a director to focus projects leading to later work into film colourisation, leading to his wiki on his Colourisation project.

Matthew later re-trained in Sound Design at Bournemouth University where he worked with notable Sound Designers, engineers, Foley artists and composers including Alistair Lock, Prof Stephen Deutsch and Prof Sean Street. Upon returning to Coventry he later abandoned his interest in Media due to changes in the industry within the West Midlands and a move of production to nearby Manchester and Nottingham. He resorted to his second passion - IT.

In 1998, after completing his BA degree he worked at The Depot Studios, a hub for creative talent where he looked into the possibility of making his first short film - 'Denouement', under the company name of 'Avatar Media'. However during the work on this film was seconded to work on a fellow film before moving on to a sharp focus on supporting another project run by the Depot. Matthew was offered volunteer work on the BA Media Studies programme run at the centre, sadly leaving his media career at that point.

After the completion of the PgDip portion of his Sound Design degree, Matthew returned home to Coventry and renamed and re-purposed 'Avatar' to 'Actar Multimedia', instead focusing on Flash-based websites and rich media content. Matthew was offered positions at Coventry Technical College, Stoke Park School and Community College (teaching WebWise and CLAIT), Coundon Court (where he taught the Introduction to IT and Dreamweaver courses) and President Kennedy School. By the end of 2000 he was offered a permanent teaching position at President Kennedy who sponsored his Qualified Teacher Status through the Qualified Teacher programme. He obtained QTS certification in 2003 and stayed on a further year obtaining QTS induction before marrying and moving to Worcester in 2004.

The move to Worcester did not go smoothly. The sale of the house was delayed and a secondary teaching job fell through. Matthew took a job working as IT Trainer and later exams officer at Redditch Training Centre (a pseudonym for HMP Blakenhurst, now part of the HMP Hewell Grange prison complex, in Redditch). After 18 months and an ALI (now OFSTED) commendation Matthew moved to a role at BECTA, Coventry, where he worked as Project Officer and later Project Manager covering the projects: FERL, ACLearn and LearningAndSkillsWeb.

Later in 2007 Matthew took a teaching role at Gloucester college to last for 3 years. He continued as BTEC and HND Computing lecturer, later BTEC Games Design Course Leader and also an Advanced Practitioner. His work within the internal management structure also meant that he was seconded to the Quality team and worked on internal inspections. In 2013 after some disillusionment with the retention and success figures for Further Education delivery in general, he moved to a new position with Zenos, at the Birmingham apprenticeship centre. Matthew worked at Zenos, later Pearson, for the Birmingham, Telford, Coventry and Cheltenham centres supporting delivery to several thousand learners and seeing them into roles in the IT industry.

In 2013, Pearson downsized and Matthew moved to a new position as Curriculum Developer for LMPQ where over 6 months he wrote the pilot IT Apprenticeship delivered at the Worcester College, Birmingham and Dudley sites. After this Matthew launched MBIT Training Ltd - a corporate IT Training company focusing on delivering official vendor-endorsed, corporate training to companies across the UK. His engagements have led to training in Europe, Ireland and across the UK including some key companies including both the US Air Force and UK Navy, also the UK Army. Matthew's most notable distinction was an award of merit by the US Air Force for training services.

In 2015 Matthew wrote his first book - the ConmpTIA Network+ study guide. This was followed in 2017 by the CompTIA A+ certification guide. He continues to work on the Colourisation project and also to grow MBIT.