More than 150 local primary and post-primary pupils from the Magherafelt area have taken part in an educational initiative to showcase computer science opportunities at Northern Regional College (NRC).
Funded by the Department for the Economy, the Bring IT On event was designed to inform young people about opportunities in computer science and encourage them to consider a career in IT.
The College worked collaboratively with local schools and IT businesses to stage the event, which included a series of computer science workshops and coding activities for Year 11 – 14 pupils. Primary 7 pupils also attended the event and took part in the practical sessions.
The event was supported by Kainos, The Centre of Secure Information Technologies at Queen’s University Belfast, DHSS and Career Encode, as well as local business owners and former Northern Regional College students Darren Workman and Mark Simpson of iTek.
IT lecturer at Northern Regional College, Judith Knox said: “This was an ideal opportunity for us to showcase the computer science and coding courses available at the College. Pupils from some primary and post-primary schools were able to use the College’s cutting-edge technology and we hope that this will encourage some of them to consider a career in computer science.”
She added: “Northern Ireland has become a global leader in this area and nowadays, a career in computing is much more than sitting at a keyboard in front of a screen all day: there are a diverse range of employers out there looking for bright, hard-working young people to fill really exciting roles.
“We have plenty of intelligent, enthusiastic young people here in Northern Ireland, however, we need to make sure they have the right skill-set to fulfil these emerging roles.”
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