A NesCol business student has graduated with skills to help him one day run the family firm.
Shay McGillivray joined the college to study a non-advanced course in Digital Media, but has now worked his way up to complete an NHD in Technologies in Business.
The 19-year-old studied during the pandemic, when students had to complete learning online.
“But it wasn’t all bad, you got longer in bed and saved money on travel”, said Mr McGillivray honestly.
“If you are doing computing stuff it is probably better to do it online.”
Carrying on family enterprise
His family owns the Parkhill Garden Centre and Seasons Coffee Shop in Dyce and White Lodge Garden Centre in Turriff.
The family hopes that the skills he has picked up in college will help him one day run the business which was started by his grandfather in 1974.
However, he sadly died earlier this year from cancer. But he hopes he can one day be ready to build on his family’s legacy.
And despite only being 19, Mr McGillivray is already getting ready by learning the skills he will need to take the reigns.
During his course, he learned cyber resilience, e-commerce solutions, business operations and project management.
He believes they are all skills needed for a modern business.
He added: “We learned things like business ethics and professionalism which I am sure will help me too.”
Conversation