Warwick cricketer Kian Butterfield had an excellent reason to miss last week’s trophy presentation with his team Cleveland County.As his fellow players celebrated winning the First Division 50-over championship, Kian headed overseas to pursue his degree and get a step closer to one day possibly running his own IT consulting business back in Bermuda.“I’m still playing a bit of cricket with my school,” said Kian from the University of East London, where he’s currently studying for a Bachelor’s degree in business information systems and business management.Describing himself as “a batter and a bowler an all-rounder”, Kian said that for now, studies have to come first.“IT is the way to go because it’s the way things are going,” he said. “It’s never going to die out, and there are always going to be jobs available. You just need to make sure that you’re marketable. If you get the right skills, you’re never going to have a problem finding a job once you’re done with school.”At 26, Kian doesn’t feel too old to go back to university.His degree will build on his information systems diploma from Compucollege (now Eastern College) in Halifax, Nova Scotia.“I do know people that come back to Bermuda and say they’re having a hard time finding a job,” Kian said. “But I find when I speak with them that they didn’t pick up on any of the certifications. That’s one of the major things companies look at when they hire people.”Earlier this month, the Bank of Bermuda Foundation awarded Kian its Information Technology Scholarship, worth $48,000, which is bankrolling his higher learning in combination with his Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC) education award.“My advice with scholarships is, just apply for as many of possible that are in your field,” he said. “You never know. Just apply.“One thing that helps a lot is the bermudascholarships.com site. Going on there made it much, much easier for me. Filling out the same information over and over can be frustrating, but with this site you put in your information once, and it finds what’s available.”Kian traces his love of cricket back to his mother’s enthusiasm for the sport.“She always wanted to go away to watch cricket in the West Indies,” he said. “From a young age I was involved with cricket with the Western Stars. I played with Warwick Workmen before I ended up with Cleveland County.”Cricket teaches the value of teamwork, he said, but technology another early interest represents “the way of the future”.“The skills I’m developing now will help me if I want an IT management position when I come back to Bermuda,” he said. “It’s a three-year programme and this is my second year here in London, so I’m getting there.”He added: “Now that I’m part of the cricket team here, they work the schedule for me, so there’s not so much conflict with classes. So sometimes, when things are quiet, we slip out to the field.”lUseful website: www.uel.ac.uk.