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talent 23, a year of talent and skills

a year of talent and skills

Employers and the UTC – how to get involved with Computing

by Mel Kanarek

University Technical College Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park provides school students with specialist education in Computing, here's how employers can get involved.

Sheffield’s second UTC opened at the Olympic Legacy Park in 2016 with a mandate to provide specialist education in Computing, Sports Science and Life Sciences alongside traditional GCSEs and A-Levels.  The flagship £10-million-pound building provides a unique experience for students to study adjacent to elite athletes and professional sports people. At the UTC itself, we benefit from cutting-edge facilities such as a three-dimensional motion capture studio, a sports science laboratory, a fitness suite, a health and development suite, a user experience lab, together with research and computing labs. The specialisms of health sciences and computing were chosen specifically to address key skills shortages, not just in the UK but globally, and will give students an excellent route into employment or higher education.

Students in Year 10 and Year 12 study technical qualifications in IT/Computing that relate directly to the skills that employers need. As part of that, UTC offers something special in terms of embedded engagement from employers. While we work with several employers we are keen to expand our employer network in the region in different capacities.

Our curriculum is built around employability skills in the IT/Computing industry from project management, programming and hardware. While we teach these in order to pass an academic course, we are keen for employers to engage with us and give students a live project to work on that forms part of the qualification and extends their learning.

Here are some of the current curriculum areas that we would like to develop:

Year 10 (14 -15 year olds)

  • Programming of Games

Year 11 (15 – 16 year olds)

  • Interactive Multimedia product creation
  • General IT Project
  • Computer Hardware and Networks

Year 12 (16-17 year olds)

  • Product development
  • Project Management

Year 13 (17-18 Year Olds)

  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Big Data
  • Internet of Things
  • Virtual and Augmented reality
  • Programming Project

Projects generally involve three stages:

  1. Client Brief Session – for you to deliver the brief and allow students to capture requirements
  2. Design Session – students present to you their Requirements Analysis and Designs
  3. Completion/Acceptance testing – students present back their product and their testing for acceptance/feedback.

Visits

We are keen to get students into the workplace to see exactly how the industry works. Trips can be anything from a one hour tour to a full day with interactivity with staff/sessions presented and this is entirely flexible. If you think you can offer any of these please let us know so we can discuss how this fits with curriculum.

Employer Mentoring

Three times a year we have an ‘employer mentor week’ where employers engage with small groups of students to talk about their aspirations, qualifications, employment prospects or anything else that will help students understand about the industry. Generally speaking we allow students to suggest employer mentoring of specific groups down to interests such as:

  • Programming and Development
  • Networking
  • IT Systems and Support
  • Project Management
  • Media/Graphics

Mentoring is a great way to see what students are doing and guide them on the right pathways to becoming great industry professionals, current employer mentors find it very rewarding. Our next mentor dates are:

  • Week commencing 26 November 2018 – Employer Mentor Week – Year 11 & 13
  • Week commencing 18 March 2019 – Employer Mentor Week – Year 11 & 13
  • Week commencing 17 June 2019 – Employer Mentor Week – Years 9, 10 & 12
  • Week commencing 1 July 2019 – Work Experience Year 10 & Year 12

Student Showcases

Employers are always welcome to attend our Showcases. The next dates are:

  • Tuesday 2 October 2018, 5.30-7.15pm – Y9/Y12 Showcase
  • Tuesday 20 November 2018, 5.30-7.15pm – Computing Showcase
  • Tuesday 15 January 2019, 5.30-7.15pm – Y9/Y12 Bitesize
  • Tuesday 25 June 2019, 5.30-7.15pm – Y9/Y12 Final Showcase

Working with us

In the first instance, you can contact:
Gill Matthews (the Principal’s PA)
Colin Smith (Curriculum Director Computing)

Find out more about Computing at the UTC Olympic Legacy Park.