FOLLOWING its successful first year in 2016, Novosco Cloud Camp has returned to Belfast Metropolitan College’s Titanic Quarter Campus.
The free five-day summer camp in partnership with Almac Group for students aged 16-17 who are enrolled at schools and colleges throughout Northern Ireland, provided first-hand experience in the management and development of IT infrastructure in a fun learning environment.
Professional IT engineers and Belfast Met lecturers facilitated the camp, which also included a tour of Novosco’s headquarters at Catalyst in Belfast to allow students to see a world-class managed cloud company in action.
In addition to free registration, all participants were provided with a free Raspberry Pi computer to keep to continue practicing and honing the skills learned at the camp.
Areas covered at the Camp included: networking, Python programming, basic HTML programming, and creating virtual servers.
Speaking ahead of the initiative Novosco Managing Director, Patrick McAliskey, said: “Cloud Camp was a real success in 2016 and again we’ve had a big response this year in terms of applicants. We know that there is demand for IT skills in Northern Ireland and that this will grow. But it is evident from the registrations we’ve had in Cloud Camp that there is also real interest in IT careers.
“At Novosco we work hard to develop and retain the expertise we have, but with that comes the responsibility to support the development of the next generation of IT infrastructure engineers, skilled cloud technicians and future project managers. Novosco Cloud Camp is just one part of our commitment to supporting the future of the industry and growing the talent pool in Northern Ireland.”
Andrew Hillis, Group Head of Information Services at Almac Group, added: “Providing an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally is built upon sound IT infrastructure. Some of the skills that young people are learning at Cloud Camp are crucial to the day-to-day operations of our international organisation. We’re thrilled to play our part alongside Novosco to stimulate interest in IT and encourage potential future employees.”