DIGITALDEPARTMENTAT:
Each year we work closely with Manchester Digital whorunthefantastic‘DigitalHer’initiative,withthe aimtoendgenderinequalityinthetechsector.
This year they organised a great day with Atkins RealisintheirManchesteroffices,whereourdigital studentsgotaninsightandoverviewofwhoAtkins Realis are and the work they do We heard career stories from staff and apprenticeship journeys fromthoseapprenticesstartingoutontheladder Alreadyplanningfor25/26withManchesterDigital wewillbeatBookingcominOctobertogivethose studentsanotherwonderfulinsightintoindustry
'If she can see it she can be it'
OurSoftwarestudentshadtheopportunitytobeapartof an UX research group, supporting Accenture and the GMCA with their development of the Our Pass App and Website. With the Our Pass being the travel pass for GM 16-18 year olds, it was fantastic for our students to give their ideas and experiences. One session was delivered virtually 1-2-1 on Teams and the second was in-person at collegewhereAccenturebroughtinprototypedesigns.
ForthethirdyearrunningnowwehavetakenagroupofourBAME digital students down to Computacenter offices in Media City where they get a lovely warm welcome, a brief tour and presentations from people of colour in the organisation talking abouttheirjourneystowheretheyarenow Thesecondhalfofthe session was an employability workshop on CV and Cover Letter skills before students got into small groups to work on a sustainable IT challenge, presenting their ideas to all with winning prizesforbestideaandbestpresentation!
Very much worthy of its own page! For the third year running we have worked closely with The Talent Foundry Their aim is to help young people from underserved communities develop valuable employmentskillsandbetterpreparethemforthe world of work A group of our digital students joined their ‘Powering Potential’ programme which TTFpartnerwithDellTechnologiestodeliveracross 4sessionsat4techlocationsinManchester-This year at UA92, ANS Group, DiSH with Cisco and HOST Students get amazing industry insight, work on employability sessions including mock interviews,LinkedInprofiles,CV’sandgroupwork.
Coordinated fantastically by TTF staff and supported so well by Dell volunteers who givesomuchguidancetoour students Also the host employers are so warm and welcoming, you physically see as each session passes our students grow in confidenceandblossom
Also continuing our fantastic relationship with The Talent Foundry they supported us with other opportunities throughout the year WehadTTFandPearsoninfora‘PathtoSuccess’workshopduring our Digital Careers Week Delivered in college, Pearson brought in 16 volunteers and alongside the TTF coordinators delivered mock interviews and networking exercises to a large cohort of digital learners
Also with TTF we took a cohort to Barclays Spinningfields offices in examseasonforasessiononresilienceandpositivethinking
Early this year we were offered the opportunity to visit Production Park in South Kirkby to learn about the live events industry from Academy of Live Technology(ALT)
WetookallouryearoneMusicandGamesDesign students on the coach, and there we got a tour of the amazing studio spaces and Xplore lab as well asaquickquizonliveevents,andasessiononthe degreecoursestheyrunatALT
Our learners really enjoyed the day and many commented on learning so much about job roles they didn’t know about or hadn’t considered before.
During National Apprenticeship Week in February we take up as many opportunities as we can in promoting this progression to our students During this week we enjoyed atriptoAJBellofficeswhereourdigitalstudentsmetwith peers from other GM colleges and learnt about App pathways.Weheardfromapprenticeshipleadsaswellas current apprentices including some of our alumni studentsnowwellontheirwaytocompletingLevel6!
Manchester Digital run a fantastic programme during Nat Apprenticeship Week and for the last few years we always take a good cohort of our digital students Hosted at New Century, Manchester there was a busy floor of 30+ tech companies including AutoTrader, AtkinsRealis to engage with. Also seperate spaces for industry talks and a cv clinic where students could get expertadvicefromHRmanagersandtalentacquisitionleads.
During the week alongside the Talent Day, Manchester Digital also rundaysforDigitalHerandFutureInnovators.
We have a couple of key college events at Future Skills each year, our Digital Careers Week in NovemberandFuturesWeekinMarch ForDCWwe had plenty of engagement including HE talks from theUniversityofSalford,ManchesterMetandatrip to UCEN for our Games students who enjoyed a campus tour, a firsthand look in the classrooms with current students, a talk on the courses availblefromtutors,andaminianimationbrief. From industry we had two talks from the BBC, one a career and project management talk, the other from SoftwareApprenticesjustafewstepsahead ofourstudents.WealsohadtalksfromCGI,Cloud Imperium Games, Unseen Galaxy and the beforementionedsessionwithTTFandPearsons.
‘IwasabletoseetheUniandgointosomeclassroomsto get a feel for what it would be like to study there I have always thought about going to university but have never seenthestudyspaces,sothiswasgreattosee Theyalso discussedskillsIneedforworkingwhichwasnicetohear’
‘I have discovered new career paths that weren’t on my radar before such as project management, data science, digitalmarketing.DCWhashighlightedtheimportanceof certainskillsIwouldneed’.
ForourFuturesWeekeachyearourstudentscomeofftimetableto take up talks and workshops from industry and HE This year includedemployabilityskillssessionswithGMHigherandUA92,as well as alumni talks from two ex-students flying in industry at Bishop Fox and Lithia via an AJ Bell apprenticeship AutoTrader came in with apprentices to engage with our Software students and The Games Assembly discussed their new Liverpool campus, thecoursestheyrunandaspotlightonindustrystudiopartners
Recognising the importance of LinkedIn we called on the amazing Kate Lander, a leading career development and skills consultant to deliver a masterclasstoallourYeartwostudents
Beforehandallstudentscompletedasurveywhich highlightedonly60%hadanaccount,15%aprofile photo, 8% an opening summary, and only 3% had written a post Kate showed them how to use LinkedIn to network and build their brand, working on an elevator pitch, and demoed writing a summary using some AI prompts At the end attendees had the chance to get a free professionalheadshotphotofortheirprofiles.
When Salford City Council were looking to hire for a Transition Mentor, they got in touch looking for some studentstosupportontheirinterviewpanel Twostudents joined them for the day, saw 8 interviewees, asked preprepared questions and took notes to help the Council scoreandultimatelydecideonthesuccessfulcandidate.
Council feedback: ‘Both students were amazing! Confident,mature,greatadvocatesforthecollege’.
With our College CyberFirst Gold Accreditation which has partnered us with the company CGI, at the end of the academic yearourstudentsgottoenjoyatreatwhentheCGICyberEscape RoomarrivedinMediaCity!
The Cyber Escape provided groups of upto 7 learners at a time, securityawarenessinafunandmemorableway,helpingthemto learn the basics of cyber security The interactive immersive challenges encouraged collaboration and teamwork whilst educatingaboutpotential risksandhowtokeepinformationsafe
Earlythisyearacohortofourdigitalstudentswere invited to attend an apprenticeships careers day heldatManchesterUnitedinassociationwithDXC. Students were able to talk to current and past apprentices and discuss the different roles that are available at DXC. They asked lots of inciteful questionstohelpwiththeironwardsnextsteps. Also during the session students worked in mixed groups with other colleges on escape room challenges, lightning pitches and were even able todriveaformulaonesimulation.
Our year 2 Games Design students spent an afternoon at Salford University hearing from and taking part in a workshop for the ESports Management degree. Students wereabletospeaktocurrentuniversitystudentsstudying the course and take part in some esports competitions pittingthemselvesagainsteachother.
Later in the academic year we treated our digital learners to a bit of fun at the NorthWest Computer Museum in Leigh There, students split into three groupsandrotatedarounddifferentareas Someof the lovely volunteers there gave a group a quick programming session on some very old BBC microcomputer systems (see left) The owner gave groups a tour through the ages, and lastly students couldplayintheirarcadesection Agreatdayout!
