If we want to encourage young people to think about a career in digital and technology, what should we do? Get out there and talk to them!
As part of the Tech Partnership's Tech Week organisations in the public and private sector were asked to inspire a new generation about the digital world and change the way young people learn about technology and career options available.
We wanted to do our bit here in MoJ so we went out to visit schools, give talks and participate in career fairs across London.
Thirty 11 year-olds and me
I wanted to speak to school children who are much earlier on in their career journey, to open their eyes to cool and exciting careers in government. Here’s how I got on…..
My talk was to Year 6 pupils who are about to enter secondary school. I wanted to make them aware of the wide range of roles available in the tech space while having fun.
Following a brief talk outlining some of the work we are doing to improve services in the MoJ, I set them the task of creating product boxes for a new brand of headphones aimed at their age group.
I got them to work collaboratively, give consideration to all ideas (collected on Post-its and marked with sharpies of course!) and not dismiss ideas out of hand. This gave them an introduction to the basics of user research, design thinking, feature value, collaboration and being a self-organising team.
The designs they came up with were excellent, and some of the ideas were stellar! If any headphone manufacturers were in the room they would have struck gold.
Charlie, aged 11
Tech talk was really fun. We learnt that there are jobs you can get in gaming, film, government and other areas that all involve computers and technology.
We also learnt that not all jobs are for programming, and that people are needed to discuss ideas with customers and to organise the product teams.
Stuart showed us some apps that are available on our tablets and smartphones that can teach us to code if we wanted to learn how to do it.
The product box game was my favourite bit. We discussed ideas in our group and then designed a box for the headphones making sure we listed the key features and things that would make people buy them.
Ours lit up with different colours and they smelt of mint! They also had Bluetooth connectivity, and an eye-catching logo.
It doesn't stop there
We are building on this initiative and will continue to raise awareness of the benefits of joining the digital and technology profession. We want to play our part in developing a diverse and capable civil service workforce for the future.
You should think about doing it too, why not sign up to support the next generation.
You can find more information about careers opportunities with us:
MoJ Digital & Technology careers
Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship
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