Thursday 9 April 2015
The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) has teamed up with two IT companies to give secondary school pupils a taste of the digital dimension in their career opportunities.
At the first ever Achieve-IT event, 90 Year 8 and 9 students from GSAL, Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School and Farnley Academy enjoyed a day of workshops and online activities at the headquarters of aql, the Leeds-based communications operator. CB Information Systems, which designs educational robotics kits and related resources for schools, also supported the event.
The students used Raspberry Pi computers to access a web portal and accomplish tasks such as controlling robots or visualising data transfer around the world using aql networks. aql provided the venue, technical staff and IT resources, such as Raspberry Pi computers, IP addresses and network for activities and also hosting space for the portal.
Dr Adam Beaumont, CEO and founder of aql, said: “Our commitment to enabling Leeds as a digital city begins with young people. Our goal is to raise awareness and help them understand the opportunities of the digital world. As a Leeds digital company, we must lead by example, we wish to inspire the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers, by sharing an insight into computing and the digital possibilities of the future.“
Tim Street, head of computing and ICT at GSAL, said: “We were pleased to work with aql on this project, giving students a great opportunity to have fun with computing. Employers are looking for young people who are confident with computers, however many potential recruits are unaware of the different applications or career possibilities and today was about opening them up to the options available to them.”