Digital Futures Programme

Our Year 12 and 13 engineering students had the privilege of hosting Emile de Mello and Arthur, Graduate Engineers from CBRE Data Center Solutions, for an insightful session on Energy Audits. This marks CBRE's second visit as part of their support for BTEC Level 3 Engineering Unit 58 - Energy Management. Students gained first-hand knowledge about the purpose and impact of energy audits, discussing why companies commission them, the implications of recommendations, and whether these actions are mandatory. With their own audits scheduled in the new year, this real-world perspective will be invaluable to their learning journey. A huge thank you to CBRE for their ongoing support and for inspiring our students with practical insights! #STEMEducation #ThinkUTC #FutureEngineers #BTEC #EnergyManagement #EmployerEngagement Digital Futures Programme

Thank you, LMG (lmgiq.com), for your continued collaboration on the Digital Futures Programme, giving invaluable opportunities for our students. Here's to lots more in 2025!

Many thanks to LMG (lmgiq.com), employer partner on the Digital Futures Programme, who has delivered CCTV and WiFi workshops to Year 10 groups in all four Activate Learning Education Trust UTCs - UTC Heathrow, UTC Reading, UTC Swindon and UTC Oxfordshire - over the past few weeks. Serving as a brilliant introduction topic to data centres, our youngsters were happy to take concepts they knew about (WiFi and CCTV) and delve a bit deeper into the considerations of where to site them, using a data centre as the location. Claps all round to the LMG team members who have taken to the employer mentor roles with aplomb!

Many thanks to the LMG (lmgiq.com) team who ran their ever-popular CCTV and WiFi workshop with year 10 at UTC Reading. The students thoroughly enjoyed planning out effective coverage for the building at the minimum cost. Year 10's Franklyn said: "We had to plot different WiFi outposts - putting it various places where it can cover the whole building, then we thought about the cost and how it’s arranged. If you put two WiFi networks together its going to clash, so we had to think about that. I didn’t know that before. Overall today was really good!" Thanks to the brilliant LMG team Mike Hook Candace Kumi Tayler Lee Assoc CIPD and Matthew Deang for making the workshops so engaging and putting relevant, real-world challenges to the students. #thinkutc #utc #datacentres #digitalinfrastructure #engineering #digital #cctv #wifi

🌟 Join us at AWS by clicking here : https://lnkd.in/eeaauwiX We’re hiring women in our data centres, and I’d love to see more amazing talent join our team. Who keeps the cloud running? AWS Data Centre Engineers like Marin and Jessica, who’ve grown with and without an engineering background. With AWS’s support, training, and resources, they’ve taken on challenges, driven innovation, and created lasting impact. If you’re ready to challenge yourself, innovate, and grow, this could be your next big step. Don’t wait! #AWSDataCentres #TechCareers #WomenInTech

Our Digital Futures Programme has been cited in a techUK report calling on the government to act urgently to address the growing digital skills gap that, if left unchecked, could lose the economy billions. The report highlights a number of constraints affecting growth in data centres, including the need for central and local government to implement policies now to ensure the next generation is equipped to thrive in careers within the sector, sustaining the industry’s momentum. Bringing data centres into careers awareness in schools is vital – and our UK first programme of digital and employability skills designed and ran by digital infrastructure leaders takes it to whole new level! Running in all four of Activate Learning Education Trust 's UTCs (UTC Heathrow, UTC Reading, UTC Oxfordshire, UTC Swindon), students are learning technical and employability skills to prepare them for STEM-focused degrees or apprenticeships. The programme enables students to learn about the digital infrastructure industry, and the significant opportunities, even at entry level, that are available to them. Employment opportunities coming from the programme, (which now has 13 partners on board) are growing each year, with ALET supporting partners to develop and promote their apprenticeships. So far, with the programme having run in just UTC Heathrow until this academic year, five students have started working for partners after completing level 3 qualifications – companies who are thrilled with the level of skill and knowledge their new recruits bring with them! The programme rolled out to all four of ALET’s UTCs this September, and the intention is this expansion will continue, benefiting both the students getting a foot onto a lucrative career ladder and employers taking on enthusiastic, skilled apprentices. You can read more about the programme and TechUK's report here: https://lnkd.in/dKQUq4ms Employers interested in finding out more about working with our UTCs are encouraged to email stephaine.bolter@alet.org.uk Companies working on the Digital Futures Programme are: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ark Data Centres, CNet Training, CyrusOne, CBRE, Digital Realty, JLL, LMG (lmgiq.com), Yondr Group, Kao Data, DataX Connect, VIRTUS Data Centres, Vertiv, CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) CBRE Data Center Solutions Nicola Tatum Stephanie Bolter Wayne Edwards Sam Knowlton Baker Dearing Educational Trust Jas Kallah Jennie T. Hollie Danby Emma Reynolds #datacentres #stemeducation #stem #engineering #digitalinfrastructure #thinkutc #utc #ukfirst #education #apprenticeships

Today, our Year 10 & Year 12 students took on a HUGE challenge to Build a Data Centre! This wasn’t just a classroom exercise—thanks to our Digital Futures Programme (DFP), they tackled a real-world industry challenge with hands-on guidance from our amazing employer partners. 🛠 The challenge: Set by Digital Realty and supported by our partners Yondr Group, VIRTUS Data Centres, LMG (lmgiq.com), CNet Training, and Ark Data Centres, students put their skills to the test, working to solve genuine problems faced by the digital infrastructure industry. With teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking, they competed for the chance to win a special prize! 🎉 Big congratulations to all students and to the winning team, Apollo Cloud Solutions! We’re so proud of what our students accomplished today. A massive thank you to Billy Marshall and Daniel Butler from Digital Realty for putting together this fantastic challenge and Athina Koligkioni (MSc, MIEMA CEnv) and @zoeeleanormason from Yondr Group, Grahem Jackson from VIRTUS Data Centres, Candace Kumi and Natasha Hogan from LMG (lmgiq.com), Pat Drew from CNet Training, Luke Mortimer and #AshleyYoung from Ark Data Centres for giving your time today to give our students an unforgettable learning experience. Stay tuned for our news story on the whole day...coming soon! #DigitalFutures #ThinkUTC #BuildingFutureSkills #DataCentreDesign #TalentPipeline Nicola Tatum Wayne Edwards Stephanie Bolter Michelle Wardle Jennie T.

Today's Challenge Day really put the wind in the sails of our Year 10s as they were asked to consider sustainable power and the important role it plays in running our data storage! This was as hands-on exercise—thanks to our Digital Futures Programme (DFP) - guided by our employer partners. 🛠 The challenge: Set by Kao Data and supported by our Digital Futures Programme partners, students worked in small teams to design a working wind turbine to power a sail car. A lot of fun was had as the employed teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking - all while competing for the chance to win a special prize! 🎉 Big congratulations to all students and to the winning teams. A massive thank you to Chris Small, Mike Tamblingson, Faisal A. and Lizzy McDowell from Kao Data, Grahem Jackson & Helen Kinsman from VIRTUS Data Centres, Pat Drew from CNet Training, Matthew Deang and Ben Knight from LMG (lmgiq.com), Vakaas Ahmed from Amazon Web Services (AWS), @richard lumb and Mark Blakemore from Ark Data Centres, James Houghton (MIRP CertRP), Joe Wilson and Josie Hughes from DataX Connect, Frank Cressy, from Vertiv and Tom Callaghan and Ian Maitland-Stuart from JLL for giving your time today to give our students an unforgettable learning experience. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/etVG558V Jas Kallah Nicola Tatum Stephanie Bolter #sustainablepower #datacentres #thinkutc Baker Dearing Educational Trust

Today, our Year 10 & Year 12 students were challenged to Build a Data Centre! As part of our Digital Futures Programme (DFP), they tackled a real-world industry challenge with hands-on guidance from our amazing employer partners. 🛠 The challenge: Set by Ark Data Centres and supported by our partners LMG (lmgiq.com), VIRTUS Data Centres and CBRE, students put their skills to the test, thinking all about location, design, cooling, security... problems genuinely faced in the data centre world. With teamwork, creativity and critical thinking, they competed for the chance to win a special prize! 🎉 Big congratulations to all students and to our all female winning team! A data centre sized thank you to Allan Bosley and Kieran Baggs from Ark Data Centres; Arthur Howlett from VIRTUS Data Centres; Lee Smith and Matt Gilbert from LMG (lmgiq.com); Mat Robinson and Jack Rodrigues-Pereira from CBRE for giving your time today to give our students an unforgettable learning experience. As Allen Bosley summed up: “Data centres are a very exciting industry, and we [employers] are investing our time in this because it’s important. It’s important to us and important to the world, because we use lots of power. We’re very concerned about the environment within which we operate...so it’s something that we take very seriously. And I think you have, too, and you’ve reflected that. Well done.” Read all about the day here: https://lnkd.in/e7rn2JDV #DigitalFutures #ThinkUTC #BuildingFutureSkills #DataCentreDesign #TalentPipeline Nicola Tatum Wayne Edwards Stephanie Bolter Sam Knowlton Hollie Danby Baker Dearing Educational Trust

Last week, Activate Learning Education Trust supported #ThinkUTC Week, a national campaign that highlights the outstanding achievements of England’s 44 University Technical Colleges (UTCs). They celebrated everything that makes UTCs unique – from employer engagement and technical education excellence to the incredible destinations our students achieve. We loved seeing the inspiring stories and snapshots of what makes UTCs special, and it was amazing to see the energy and pride across the community! Check out what some of the UTCs have been up to - Digital Futures Programme, UTC Reading, UTC Oxfordshire, UTC Swindon and UTC Heathrow. #UTC #EngineeredForAI #DataCentres #Education #Tech