Inaugural Northern Ireland Digital Awareness Week (NIDAW) Showcases Talent

After noticing the decline in young people taking up places on computing courses in Northern Ireland, Rachel Steenson FBCS and Aine McCaughey from Civica created and ran a very successful inaugural Digital Awareness Week for students and teachers.

Launched by Education Minister Michelle McIlveen MLA, the week of over 20 virtual talks and workshop events ran from 18-22 October 2021. The launch took place in the newly refurbished W5 Interactive Discovery Centre in Belfast with the Minister joined by the Principal of St. Patrick's College in Dungannon, Catherine McHugh, and two Year 14 pupils from the school. A demo using Google Ventures as well as the micro:bits the government Departments were funding was shown. This gave the Education Minister a chance to see the micro:bits in action. 

The aim of the week was to raise the profile of careers in IT, showcase all the different types of careers available and how IT can be applied. For example, demonstrating that you don't have to be a software developer, because not everybody wants to code.

Keeping up the momentum

Northern Ireland is a vibrant place in terms of its tech community and the interesting companies it attracts. There is a need to continue to encourage talented people to go into that workforce. However, there are statistics like just 1% of A-level students choosing ICT and the rate of undergrads in Computer Science is decreasing. Yet, there is the passion, the breadth of opportunities, the excitement and enjoyment of working in the industry.

Aine started the Coding for Kids outreach team at Civica a couple of years ago with primary school kids, doing coding workshops and going out to schools initially in the local Belfast area. They were getting kids interested in tech careers early - and quickly expanded to post-primary level, and become involved with Bring It On, an organisation run through Belfast Met in Northern Ireland.

When COVID hit, outreach ground to a halt and the idea for Northern Ireland Digital Awareness Week (NIDAW) was born. The Civica team thought, ‘let’s tackle a problem that comes up again and again: encouraging kids into IT’. This was achieved by a collaborative industry approach with different companies coming together to showcase the best of the talent that they have. 

Rachel and Aine called on contacts from the likes of Microsoft and IBM to help deliver NIDAW. Aine outlined “We've got such a diverse technology sector in Northern Ireland but just not enough people to fill it! I believe to do that and encourage more people; we need to start as early as we can.”

Rachel reflects, “I was lucky that I joined Civica just when Aine was looking for volunteers. It's exactly the sort of thing that I love to see happening. I’d already had engagement with BCS as a Council member and Chair of the Northern Ireland Branch previously - and we've also just recently set up our BCS Northern Ireland Computing Education Committee here.” 

Partnership and support

NIDAW had support from Beverly Clarke (National Community Manager for the Academy of Computing), Adam Thilthorpe (BCS Director of External Affairs) and Mark Owens MD of Civica who is passionate about IT education in Northern Ireland.

Also involved were two universities in Northern Ireland, Queens and Ulster, and Belfast Met. Joining force with large companies such as Microsoft Dreamspace, Allstate and IBM, smaller companies, and homegrown start-ups, including Kinsetsu, Sustain IQ, Kairos and TapSOS. 

Building on the success

The feedback from the survey, and from some of the teachers, was they really enjoyed learning about the likes of AI and using the micro:bits. Some of the students said that they’d had no idea about the amount of activity going on in the Northern Ireland industry.

The Head of Computing at Wallace High, Ruth Foster said her students were captivated; not even a whisper heard in the room as they listened intently. Because the sessions were virtual each was recorded and have now been made available to every school in Northern Ireland. Many of these schools are following a CCEA Digital Technology course at GCSE and A-Level, which can be incredibly challenging to teach. Several teachers mentioned the topics and content covered would help them in years to come to teach their digital technology offerings.

After such an amazing success, the team would definitely like to run the event again. Building on what they've done whilst keeping it fresh and interesting. It's a case of 'watch this space'!

The recordings from the week are available to all schools in the CAS Network here.