A transformative experience for Tech Industry Gold students

In an afternoon not to be missed, 150 students, academics and employers came together this week for the autumn 2020 Tech Industry Gold student / employer event.

Designed to give students unique insights and connections with employers, these twice-yearly gatherings are a core part of the student experience for undergraduates on Tech Industry Gold accredited degrees, and a direct contributor to their outstanding employment results. With this being the first online Tech Industry Gold student / employer event, we were pleased to also be able to extend a welcome to degree apprentices for the plenary part of the event.

An action packed three hours developed the themes of technology, business and personal transformation, including:

The inspirational story of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship from IBM’s Chief Technology Officer, Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor Andy Stanford-Clark. Powered by AI and energy from the sun, this project pushes technology to its limit to create the first unmanned ship to cross the Atlantic.
A live tour of BT’s incredible Innovation Centre, showcasing cutting edge technology developments and exploring the benefits they can bring to consumers and business.
Industry leaders from Gousto, NHS Digital and EY discussing their experiences of business transformation through Covid-19, ranging from scaling up to serve meals to feed the nation, to how technology is supporting the NHS, to the urgent development of a border testing system for the island of Jersey.
Roundtables for students to talk informally with employer panels to understand what employers care about in graduate recruitment and how to boost their employment prospects. Managers from Aviva, Bank of America, Capgemini, CGI, FDM, Ford, Fujitsu, Global, IBM, Matalan, Oracle, P&G, TCS, TikTok and VMware generously gave their time, with open, candid insights.

A further highlight of the day was the prize giving for the winners of the autumn inter-university Tech Industry Gold student team challenge, and the award of a rich array of development opportunities to students who impressed employers during the event – details of both are below.

The spring event will take place on 17th March 2021. Another unmissable experience is already in development!

“It was an honour to host my first Tech Industry Gold event. I was inspired by our phenomenal range of speakers sharing their stories of technology and business transformation through 2020 and I was blown away by the digital talent showcased by the Autumn Competition winners. It was also great to see so many employers, with strong representation from our Alumni community, sharing insights and opportunities to help guide and support the current students as they look to the future. Spring Event March 17th is a definite date for the diary!”

Tom Lovell, MD, Tech Partnership Degrees

Autumn Tech Industry Gold Event student prizes

COMPANY	HOST	STUDENT WINNER	UNIVERSITY

Vice-President for the Day
VMware	Colin Bannister, VP Solution Engineering	Adya Aggarwal	Queen Mary

Day with a Dev
Valitudo	Adam Hazem, CEO	Camilo Pires	UWE

Amazon Vouchers
Intersystems	Hannah Stone, Marketing Co-ordinator	Luke Eason	Loughborough

‘Company Cuppa’ (30-minute chat)
Ablemove	Josh Wintersgill, Entrepreneur	Cameron Duff	Loughborough
AWSM	Luke Thomas, Chief Operating Officer	Laura Rodwell	UWL
Bain	Brendan O’Rourke, Expert Vice President	Amy Yapp	UWE
FDM	Rod Flavell, CEO	Toby Oates	Loughborough
Fujitsu	Nicholas White, Head of Junior Talent	Nino Matozan	Queen Mary
Fujitsu	Victoria Ward, Head of Central Services	Cameron Duff	Loughborough
Fujitsu	John Lockwood, Head of DevOp	Graeme Whyte	Glasgow Caledonian
IBM	Andy Standford-Clark, Chief Technology Officer	Jan Pilar	Northumbria
IBM	Matt Rigby, Agile Coach	Amy Yapp	UWE
Matalan	Natasha Rhodes, Domain Architect	Graeme Whyte	Glasgow Caledonian
TCS	Anshoo Kappor, Head of Early Talent	Camilo Pires	UWE
TikTok	Clare Tomkins, University Recruitment Lead	Caitlin Christie	Northumbria
Valitudo	Adam Hazem, Founder & CEO	Camilo Pires	UWE

Autumn Tech Industry Gold student team challenge

Focused on digital exclusion, this season’s challenge was to create a tech solution to help more people to be more connected in our rapidly changing world. Thanks go to the students for their creativity, their Course Directors for their encouragement, and the judges from Ablemove, Air Products, Arrow, AWSM Technologies, Capgemini, Bank of America, Global, P&G and VMware.

“The quality of the ideas and presentation always blows me away in these events. It’s a testament to the course. I was particularly impressed at the first years who have just started their courses and are already picking up on things such as Business Canvas, Design Thinking, Standups and other real-life methods for doing this type of activity. Really well done to all the teams.”

Joe Macauley-Yeoman, Global

Winning teams were as follows:

First years

1st: Queen Mary University of London with traVeRse
2nd: Lancaster University with EduEverything
3rd: University of the West of England with Follow Me

The winning team from Queen Mary tackled the problem that we have all been facing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many people have been far away from loved ones, their routines, travel opportunities and enjoyment in many forms. The team focussed mainly on virtual travelling which they called traverse designing new concepts to boost positive moods.

Second & final years

1st: Loughborough University with Charity Point
Joint 2nd: Chichester University with Shareable Network Data and
University of the West of London with Biteless

The winning team from Loughborough tackled the lack of digital connection between charities and the public. Their solution is an app (Charity Point) that makes donations simpler, clearer and quicker by enabling financial and physical item donations for charities in their local area.