Category: From our Community

blog post about graduate apprenticeships from glasgow uni

Graduate Apprenticeships – a potential route to university for all 

by Dr Matthew Barr, Programme Director for the Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering at the University of Glasgow

 

Last week, my colleague Anna and I were in a school on the south side of Glasgow to talk to pupils about our Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering. Many of the young people we met were confident in articulating their plans for life after school, and several were already considering university or college. Others were less certain. Was university for them? What does it mean to go to university? Shouldn’t they get a job instead? 

In some schools, pursuing a university degree is understood to be an option for many pupils. That is not always the case, however, which is why we’re visiting schools in areas of multiple deprivation across the west of Scotland. We’re talking to pupils who might be the first in their family to attend university, or those for whom getting a job when they leave school is the first and only priority.  

 

A Graduate Apprenticeship – where students earn a living wage while working towards their degree – seems an obvious solution for pupils who find themselves in such circumstances. The problem, though, is that many pupils are unaware of university-level apprenticeships. This isn’t surprising, given that GAs are a relatively new offering in Scotland, but it’s essential that we get the word out to the young people that might benefit from these opportunities the most. 

There are many bright, brilliant young people in Scotland with a passion for tech. And our tech sector desperately needs them! There are plenty of well-paid and hugely rewarding jobs out there for young people with Software Engineering skills, and an apprenticeship is an ideal route to securing such a job. Indeed, the job starts right away: by the time an apprentice graduates, they will already have accrued four years of work experience.  

But we don’t want our apprentices to miss out on the university experience, either. That’s why our GA programme includes eight-week blocks of on-campus learning in years one and two, allowing apprentices to bond as a cohort while taking advantage of all that university life has to offer. The block-based structure of our GA programme also means that we are able to frontload a lot of our teaching, making sure that our apprentices get all of the basics down as early as possible – making them productive in the workplace as quickly as possible.  

This is an opportunity that I would have seized upon, had it been an option 25 years ago. And, when I talk to pupils, parents, or teachers about the possibilities offered by a Graduate Apprenticeship, the advantages quickly become obvious: a good salary, four years’ work experience, and a University of Glasgow degree – where do I sign up?! But we need to get the message out there, which is why I was delighted to be given the opportunity to write this blog. 

 

There is more information on our website, including our entry requirements. It’s worth noting that Higher Computing is absolutely not a requirement – we’re looking for four B grades at Higher, including a B in Maths. We also have a number of alternative routes on to the programme, which take into account certain HNC and HND qualifications, and we offer support with CV and cover letter writing when it comes to applying to employers. 

The website also lists the opportunities currently on offer. This year, for example, we’re offering places with top multinational corporations like Barclays and Morgan Stanley, dynamic public sector companies including the BBC and Student Loans Company, and cutting-edge tech firms like Smarter Grid Solutions and VeryConnect.  

 

We’re also more than happy to come and talk to pupils – please do get in touch with me directly at Matthew.Barr@glasgow.ac.uk to arrange a visit, or for more information. The Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering is such a fantastic opportunity, and we don’t want anyone to miss out! 

 

05 May 2022, 16:00 – 17:00 Digital Futures Series Session 2: Coding

5th May 2022, 16:00 – 17:00 Digital Futures Series Session 2 : Coding This session, jointly presented by Education Scotland and Tablet Academy Scotland, aims to familiarise participants with Microsoft’s Explore the Digital Future coding resources which can support support your developing skills in skills and knowledge required for careers in digital industry. This five …

Read more

COP26 Sphero Lesson Activities

by Laura Di Pasquale, Wellshot Primary School, (@LauraKeeney01)

Due to the upcoming COP26 taking place in Glasgow, the Apple Regional Training Centre Glasgow is driving forward training for computing science amongst its colleagues as part of the Digital Literacy and Computing Science framework. There are and have been several sessions available which introduce colleagues to resources and technology in order to develop computing science skills with a COP26 focus.

These sessions have included an introduction to the resources available at Barefoot Computing and Code.org, how to use Spheros to develop a range of skills and using Scratch to enhance block coding skills within the theme of climate change.

As a result of Sphero training, I created a resource pack to coincide with Sphero Edu’s lesson titled “Around the World in 60 Minutes”. This resource pack contains several activities ranging from early level to more advanced coding for the upper school. It helps pupils to develop a better map of the world, learning the names of continents and countries and researching issues related to climate change. It is designed to be fun and interactive whilst developing skills in programming.

 

Get Laura’s lessons here

ROSSHALL ACADEMY’S CARBON CLEAN APP – APPS FOR GOOD

Rosshall Academy‘s Digital Ambassadors created their app ‘Carbon Clean’ for the Apps for Good competition.
By polling the students and teachers, they found out which climate-based issue was of the most concern to our community and aimed to create an app that met those needs. The students spent numerous hours collaborating in person and over Teams, using their digital literacies, skills, and boundless creativity to develop a wonderful app and moving video.
The whole school were very proud, particularly the Digital Ambassador mentors Miss Edward (@missedward5) and Ms Lamont (@lamont_ms).

This video shows how Rosshall Academy created their Carbon Clean app, focussing on the small changes we can make to fight climate change.

WHAT IS APPS FOR GOOD?

Too many young people don’t have access to the skills they need to succeed in life. Since 2010 Apps for Good have been working with teachers to unlock the potential of over 200,000 students around the UK, and beyond, with our free technology courses. Our courses encourage students to think about the world around them and solve the problems that they find by creating apps and products with machine learning and IoT.



We combine giving students the freedom to tackle issues that matter to them (from food poverty, climate change and mental health issues) with partnering with expert organisations.  These partnerships enhance student’s learning experience by pairing them with companies that they admire; like LEGO, Spotify and Deutsche Bank. Which provides opportunities for students to get direct access to people working in the technology industry and get real-world experience on how to develop their tech products. Industry interactions can bring to life the skills students are learning through our courses and how to apply these skills in the workplace. Volunteers can also show young people the many different careers they might be able to pursue with digital skills, and the many different routes to success.

 

Young people across Scotland have the opportunity to try out our free courses either self-directed, in after school clubs or as part of their curriculum. Each course involve students:

  • identifying a real life problem they care about
  • researching the problem so that they understand fully both the problem and who is affected by it
  • designing a solution to the problem using their chosen technology
  • building and testing a technical prototype
  • presenting their solution

A teacher decides how they’d like to deliver the course, whether in-class or remote and if they’d like the additional support of the Apps for Good team and our experts to help them deliver the course.

“The opportunities that some of my students have had because of Apps for Good has really set us apart. It’s been absolutely incredible to think that a school in rural Scotland has managed to send kids down to London to internships at Thomson Reuters; for the Apps for Good Awards – some had never left the county before… A lot of my students have gone on to choose careers in digital simply because of where things started with Apps for Good.” – Chris Aitken (@skipperaitken), Educator, Wick High School.

 

Over the years others include:

  • Midge Forecast (@mymidgeforecast), which uses topographical data to forecast midge density, helping predict a common Scottish menace
  • Teen Health, providing teen-friendly info on sexual health and contraception
  • Keep Fit Determination, which encourages young people to exercise and earn points in order to keep playing their favourite game consoles
  • Safe Step, sensor enabled mats that alert caregivers and family members of the elderly when someone has fallen or gone missing via a mobile app

 

A key to Apps for Good success is that it places digital training within a real-world context, enabling young people to gain relevant experience, developing the skills and confidence to build digital products to solve problems in their communities and see a clear purpose to their learning.

If you’re interested in learning more and delivering an Apps for Good course in the 2021/22 academic year, visit www.appsforgood.org/courses.

 

 

A CODE CLUB IN EVERY SCHOOL: CODING THE FUTURE – NORTH AYRSHIRE

Coding the Future – initiative to allow all 9-13 year olds to experience coding (@NAC_CodeClubs)

This post was written by Rosslyn Lee (@RosJLee), Digital Skills Coordinator for North Ayrshire Council. The programme has delivered Computing Science to primary and secondary learners across the authority. Most of the knowledge came from the team’s personal interests in coding and digital. Code Club Scotland and Barefoot Computing provided training that supported the programme.

 
Coding the Future has had an incredible impact on learners in North Ayrshire, and they have been unable to fulfil demand for code clubs and summer camps because of the high level of interest. Pupils learned a variety of digital skills apart from coding and was captured in photos, videos, saving programs and sharing and demonstrations to adults.
 
 

Coding the Future – North Ayrshire Council

 

In May 2017, North Ayrshire Council made a pledge to tackle the digital skills gap by providing access to Code Clubs for all learners aged 9–13 by August 2020.

The ‘Coding the Future’ project team, including staff from Customer and Digital Services and Education has the aim of expanding and supporting Code Clubs across the authority.  The first step was to look for volunteer staff to become STEM Ambassadors.  North Ayrshire Council allows their staff to volunteer within the community for 14 hours per calendar year.

Approximately 40 staff became STEM Ambassadors and were part of a ‘train the trainer’ approach.  Their objective was to support schools to set up their own clubs, taking a step back once the staff felt confident to run the clubs by themselves.  We had some training from Code Club Scotland to start us off.  This eventually led to a core group of 8-10 people delivering support to schools.

In addition to this training, some staff attended a Barefoot Computing session. 

Schools were advised that they could request help from a volunteer to start up a Code Club.  We tried to work this on a geographical basis, depending on where the volunteer lived. Some schools set up weekly clubs for a term, some for an academic year and some on a more ad hoc basis.

In addition to individual school clubs, two of the team ran a club most Saturdays at Irvine Library which was always well attended, in fact at times oversubscribed.

We ran two very successful Summer Code Camps in 2018 and 2019.  These ran for a week in July and operated from 10am until 3pm each day, with lunches provided by North Ayrshire Council.  The limit on participants was 25, although we could have organised a couple of camps such was the interest.  Unfortunately, this was not possible as staff were using holidays to run the camp.

At camp, the young people had a variety of activities to choose from including Scratch coding, Python, Raspberry Pis,  Microbits, Spheros, Virtual Reality headsets, Merge Cube AR, 3D printing, 360 degree photography and video making.

At the end of the week we held a challenge – participants had to make their own robot using a Sphero, plastic cups and various other craft items including balloons.  We invited parents to come in on the Friday afternoon to enable the young people to show them what they had experienced and created during the week.  We also had visits from the Leader of the Council, a couple of NAC Heads of Service and two of the Digital Skills Team from Education Scotland.

During these visits our young people very ably demonstrated and taught our visitors about the devices they had been using during the week, including a safety talk about the use of VR Headsets.

We also ran a successful Learn to Code Day for staff one Saturday in November 2019, supported and funded by a STEM Grant from Education Scotland.  Activities ranged from unplugged coding to Raspberry Pis and Codapillars to Python.  Participants were from primary and secondary schools as well as members of our Family Learning Team.

In December 2019 as part of Computing Science Education Week, we held an event where North Ayrshire Council employees could bring their children into work at the end of the day, to learn how to code.  This session attracted children of varying ages and we had children coding with Scratch as well as using devices such as BlueBots, Dash and Spheros.

We were delighted that the project won the North Ayrshire Achieves Award ‘Skills for Life’ in 2018 which recognised the work we had already done and our ambitions for the future.

In February 2020 we were included in EdTech50 for 2020 as one of the projects in the UK shaping technology across the UK.

Unfortunately the initiative was hit by COVID early in 2020 and has not yet resumed.   However we hope to run a Summer Camp in 2022 and depending on the virus, be able to support individual schools- in session 21-22 with clubs and staff with training.

 Coding the Future – North Ayrshire Council

In May 2017, North Ayrshire Council made a pledge to tackle the digital skills gap by providing access to Code Clubs for all learners aged 9–13 by August 2020.

The ‘Coding the Future’ project team, including staff from Customer and Digital Services and Education has the aim of expanding and supporting Code Clubs across the authority.  The first step was to look for volunteer staff to become STEM Ambassadors.  North Ayrshire Council allows their staff to volunteer within the community for 14 hours per calendar year.

Approximately 40 staff became STEM Ambassadors and were part of a ‘train the trainer’ approach.  Their objective was to support schools to set up their own clubs, taking a step back once the staff felt confident to run the clubs by themselves.  We had some training from Code Club Scotland to start us off.  This eventually led to a core group of 8-10 people delivering support to schools.

In addition to this training, some staff attended a Barefoot Computing session. 

Schools were advised that they could request help from a volunteer to start up a Code Club.  We tried to work this on a geographical basis, depending on where the volunteer lived. Some schools set up weekly clubs for a term, some for an academic year and some on a more ad hoc basis.

In addition to individual school clubs, two of the team ran a club most Saturdays at Irvine Library which was always well attended, in fact at times oversubscribed.

We ran two very successful Summer Code Camps in 2018 and 2019.  These ran for a week in July and operated from 10am until 3pm each day, with lunches provided by North Ayrshire Council.  The limit on participants was 25, although we could have organised a couple of camps such was the interest.  Unfortunately, this was not possible as staff were using holidays to run the camp.

At camp, the young people had a variety of activities to choose from including Scratch coding, Python, Raspberry Pis,  Microbits, Spheros, Virtual Reality headsets, Merge Cube AR, 3D printing, 360 degree photography and video making.

At the end of the week we held a challenge – participants had to make their own robot using a Sphero, plastic cups and various other craft items including balloons.  We invited parents to come in on the Friday afternoon to enable the young people to show them what they had experienced and created during the week.  We also had visits from the Leader of the Council, a couple of NAC Heads of Service and two of the Digital Skills Team from Education Scotland.

During these visits our young people very ably demonstrated and taught our visitors about the devices they had been using during the week, including a safety talk about the use of VR Headsets.

We also ran a successful Learn to Code Day for staff one Saturday in November 2019, supported and funded by a STEM Grant from Education Scotland.  Activities ranged from unplugged coding to Raspberry Pis and Codapillars to Python.  Participants were from primary and secondary schools as well as members of our Family Learning Team.

In December 2019 as part of Computing Science Education Week, we held an event where North Ayrshire Council employees could bring their children into work at the end of the day, to learn how to code.  This session attracted children of varying ages and we had children coding with Scratch as well as using devices such as BlueBots, Dash and Spheros.

We were delighted that the project won the North Ayrshire Achieves Award ‘Skills for Life’ in 2018 which recognised the work we had already done and our ambitions for the future.

In February 2020 we were included in EdTech50 for 2020 as one of the projects in the UK shaping technology across the UK.

Unfortunately the initiative was hit by COVID early in 2020 and has not yet resumed.   However we hope to run a Summer Camp in 2022 and depending on the virus, be able to support individual schools- in session 21-22 with clubs and staff with training.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bridging the Digital Gender Divide – OECD

This post is based on a report published in 2018 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report aims to further strengthen the evidence base in support of the equitable participation of women in the digital economy. As the OECD report runs to more than 150 pages, I have written this post to share what I believe are the key messages, most relevant to educators in Scotland, and some of the guidance we are putting, or can put, in place to improve gender balance in computing and digital skills. 

 

We are all well aware of the increasing gender wage gap, which is especially so in digital careers, and if we don’t engage girls, they’ll be further behind in terms of earnings and career progression. In terms of digital literacy, the report suggests that the ‘generalist wins out over the specialist’ – this is useful to consider when we plan our learning and teaching: do we need children and young people who are very good at one area or skill, let’s say coding, or would be preparing them better for the world of work by allowing them to experience data, security, web development and other areas all set in cross-curricular meaningful contexts? 

 

Regarding gender balance in Computing Science, the report recognises that ‘girls perform better in collaborative tasks yet we celebrate completion/accuracy of tasks (think exams!) which don’t reward or mention the collaborative process’ – this made me reflect on my own practice, and while I would recognise good teamwork or effort that would probably be second to task accuracy or completion. So, do we need to upskill ourselves in supporting and developing collaborative learning – how to recognise when this is effective and how to feedback effectively on it – so that we can design learning and environments that foster, promote and celebrate collaboration? 

 

It might seem like common sense to promote girls-only or girl-centred lessons, classes and clubs to engage more girls – and yet the research does not support this! The OECD points to the need for ‘girls and boys working together breaks down barriers and biases’ and ‘awareness raising of digital as a cultural norm for girls and women’, while ‘showcasing female leadership in digital’. So, next time you think of setting up girls-only clubs, is it worth thinking how you can ensure mixed-gender activities that promote the skills, abilities and characters of girls alongside those of boys? 

 

In addition to the potential ‘barrier’ of gender to accessing computing and digital skills, how many of use consider the possibility of cultural and language barriers? Are our computing lessons relatable and meaningful to learners who speak English as an additional language? Does it fit their cultural capital – or that of their family? The ‘most exciting’ computing lesson (if such a thing existed) might be that for just one group while being less accessible to others. So, how do we ensure our lessons and activities excite and engage more learners, and not just more girls. 

 

The DigiLearn team have been working with our Improving Gender Balance colleagues to ensure we implement as much of this in our support as possible. We are proud to say that we will ensure that our support for educators will: 

  • support engagement in extracurricular activities 
  • bear in mind gender-related considerations for teaching – this will be built-in to our webinars and web content 
  • raise awareness of women who lead in computing and digital skills – in and out of education 
  • support applications for funding that can be accessed to support or enhance female participation 

 

Read the paper

REMOTE TEACHING OF CODING, CARMYLE PRIMARY

Laura Di Pasquale (@LauraKeeney01) was previously acting principal teacher at Carmyle Primary School and Nursery Class in Glasgow City.

She has been delivering learning to staff to increase their confidence in delivering the learning to pupils:

“I have taken part in several computing science CPD sessions over the past two years and am now leading the Glasgow City (GCC) webinars for Swift Playgrounds on iPad. In the beginning, staff did not have a lot of confidence in teaching computing science, so I developed some further training to improve this.

I had already introduced the GCC trackers for Digital Literacy and Computing Science but staff were still developing their confidence with this too. So, I developed and delivered online training with staff in my school on computing science, coding and its place in the curriculum. I then created a staff pack of three coding lessons for each year group P1-P7 for staff to use. Finally, I team-taught a lesson remotely (I was shielding at home whilst the rest of the school returned) with each class to build that teacher’s confidence.

Throughout this work I have been able to demonstrate how accessible coding can be, and how each teacher already has most of the skills required to teach a coding lesson in the classroom. Colleagues took my ready made lesson for their own class and taught this – feedback was excellent! Staff are now much more aware of how computing science can be taught offline and are now more engaged in developing computing science in the classroom; some have actively sought out further CPD (such as digilearn) to enhance their skills and knowledge.”

“The best part of all of this work has been the educational impact on the children! They were really engaged and could make the links between skills being taught in the classroom and those linked to the wider world. The learners were engaged in the tasks and really enjoyed follow-up tasks that used online activities such Scratch or Swift Playgrounds. Children were assessed using a lot of questions and watching how they engaged with the task and how well they could remember and use new technical vocabulary, such as commands and sequence.”

FIRST LEGO LEAGUE JUNIOR: PLAYMAKERS, DALMILLING PRIMARY

Elizabeth Cairns is a class teacher at Dalmilling Primary School in South Ayrshire. She has been using the First Lego League: Playmakers project to develop her learners’ understanding of coding, problem solving and design solutions. Elizabeth started by attending a webinar with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) where she learned about the project, resources and advice on delivering the learning. The First Lego League is fully resourced with learning materials, guidance and instructions on the IET Lego Education site and the Lego WeDo 2.0 kit was purchased by the school. Using the Lego WeDo project is a great way to engage learners as the challenge has a context, relates to a real world problem and the Lego makes it hands-on with concrete materials.

Elizabeth noted that all of her class engaged with the project, especially those who don’t always engage with technologies or computing lessons. Research shows that girls, especially, engage better with technology when the learning is contextual, collaborative and based on relationships -which match the six core values of the First Lego League: inclusion, discovery, teamwork, innovation, fun and impact. Elizabeth felt that this learning was enjoyed by almost all of the learners and that they developed many skills, including coding, teamwork and problem solving.

INTRODUCING CODING AND COMPUTATIONAL THINKING WITH CODE-A-PILLAR

Dundee practitioner, Judi Regan has very kindly shared resources for some wonderful Code-a-pillar play activities for early level learners. If you were at SLF 2019, you may have been lucky enough to attend her seminar. Among the resources, there are the ‘human’ Code-a-pillar arrows for children to wear. Judi them laminated these and added string for children to wear to remind them which ‘direction’ they were during unplugged CS play and also when creating their algorithms with the Code-a-pillar . The children would decide on the directions the Code-a-pillar was to travel, and form a line, holding on to the person in front. The ‘head’ would listen for each child in turn to call out their ‘direction’ and would then move in that way to make the ‘human’ Code-a-pillar travel. This could be extended by planning in advance how to reach a particular object/area; recreating the actual Code-a-pillar algorithm and moving alongside as it moves or making a plan for moving in a shape, e.g., “let’s see if we can get our human Code-a-pillar to move in a square shape?”

We have popped all of Judi’s resources into a folder on OneDrive, you can access and download here.