I’m Linda Newton, Delivery Support Manager for Universal Credit Live Service.
Earlier this year we held a fantastic event where we welcomed students from two local secondary schools to learn more about the career opportunities unlocked by studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
In fact, it was so successful we’re doing it all again next week!
A generation of potential
The government believes that if we want the UK to remain a world leader in research and technology, we need a future generation that is passionate about, and skilled in STEM subjects.
You don’t come across many young people these days who aren’t tech-savvy, so we’re using these events to help them realise the interesting and exciting potential future career options that their digital skills can open up for them.
It’s also a great opportunity to raise awareness about some of the exciting roles we have in DWP Digital and dispel some myths around working in the civil service.
Best school trip ever!
Held in partnership with MyKindaFuture and Capgemini, the event is taking place at the DWP Digital hub in Newcastle on 27 June. We’ll be welcoming pupils and teachers from two different schools in the local area to experience what it means to have a career in digital, as well as learn about apprenticeships as an alternative to going to university.
The jam-packed programme of activities will give the students an introduction to agile ways of working, and will showcase the varied roles that are available in digital. The activities have been planned so that they’re fun and engaging and really grab the students’ interest.
I’m looking forward to being on-hand and getting to chat with some of the young people taking part. It’s great to see their enthusiasm and fresh ways of thinking.
Thinking about the future
Feedback from the last event showed that we’d been able to change the way the young people think about STEM subjects and public sector jobs, and got them thinking about their future careers. We even had some of the pupils asking if they could come to DWP Digital for work experience!
And of course, it was a great opportunity for us to share our knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm about technology with young people.
Stay tuned to find out what happened on the day by subscribing to this blog or following us on Twitter @DWPDigital.