How industry engagement benefits a Multi Academy Trust

We’re proud to work closely with this multi-academy trust, which comprises eighteen schools across Luton and Bedfordshire. Industry Engagement is a core part of their approach to delivering our Innovate for Climate Change course. In 2023/24, students took part in ideation sessions with volunteers, entered Showcase, and also enjoyed the second Climate Change and Digital Innovation Summit (CCADIS), organised by the Trust with support from Apps for Good. CCADIS brought together students from 16 schools, industry partners and volunteers working in the digital economy, to enable students across the Trust to present their climate app ideas, and gain an insight into tech careers through a panel discussion with Industry Volunteers.

Emma Darcy, Director of Technology for Learning at Denbigh High School (part of Chiltern Learning Trust) reflected on why these encounters with industry have been so impactful for her students: “Google delivered a session at the start of the course, and talked about how you come up with innovative ideas. That sort of direct, relevant, purposeful industry engagement is so important. It makes the children feel so important as well. It gives them such a sense of self-belief about what's possible.”

This confidence boost is also reflected in feedback from students themselves. For Elizabeth, from Linslade School, receiving positive feedback on her team’s app idea from Industry Volunteers at CCADIS made her feel “quite inspired”. She said, “All this work that we’ve put in together, it makes it feel quite special.” Mikhail, a student at Denbigh High School, was part of team Bamboozle Me and was selected for the Apps for Good showcase in 2024. Mikhail said that preparing for CCADIS and Showcase was one of the most enjoyable parts of the course: “It rejuvenated my confidence. I found it really fun to communicate with other people to make the Showcase submission and think hard about the strategies that we'll use.” Mikhail also felt that exposure to industry role models had developed his presentation skills, saying he found the Showcase pitch to volunteers from Spotify “less nerve-wracking than expected” because “the amount of practice I’ve had has opened me up to more presentations.”

One of the aims of our Industry Engagement offer is to broaden students’ horizons and help young people, especially girls and others from underrepresented groups, to see the technology sector as something they could aspire to. Samirah, another student at Denbigh High School, told us that her Apps for Good experience - and specifically Industry Engagement - influenced her future aspirations: “[Innovate for Climate Change] has impacted the way I think about computers and media, and I really am keen to do it more often. I think it could be a career and a job to me [...] I'm 100% sure I'm choosing Computer Science after the experience I had today [CCADIS].”