BJSS, the award-winning delivery-focused IT consultancy, has announced that its community investment partnership with Turinglab, an organisation dedicated to tackling the IT skills gap, has launched at Cockburn High School in Leeds. The programme teaches fundamental coding skills to school children, aged between 11 and 16, from low income families.
The BJSS-funded sessions are designed to improve digital skills and increase interest in STEM-based careers. They combine the best of online learning and in-person teaching to provide an engaging learning experience.
Glynn Robinson, Managing Director at BJSS, and a member of the Turinglab advisory board, said, “As an organisation that prides itself on hiring the best local talent, we recognise that socio-economic circumstances should never be a barrier to opportunity. Our community investment will see BJSS finance 100 yearly scholarships so that children can develop their IT skills. I’m delighted that our partnership with Turinglab is benefiting children from local communities.”
This programme has given our coding group an excellent opportunity to build expertise that will be essential to the British economy over the next few years – Emma Husband, Cockburn High School
Sam Green, Managing Director, and Co-Founder of Turinglab, added, “We started Turinglab to ensure that children’s first steps into coding are fun and creative. Through the BJSS scholarship funding, we are giving children from low income families the opportunity to develop important digital skills, and the ability to create the future.”
The Cockburn School sessions are delivered by Turinglab-trained undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate alumni of the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford. This is the first phase of a wider initiative in which BJSS will fund Turinglab scholarships for children in Leeds, Manchester and Bristol.
Emma Husband, Assistant Headteacher at Cockburn High School, said, “Cockburn is committed to ensuring that its students are fully prepared with the skills, aspirations and academic qualifications needed to take them forward in life. We work closely with local and national employers to provide workshops to develop these skills. This programme has given our coding group an excellent opportunity to build expertise that will be essential to the British economy over the next few years. These sessions also provide the opportunity to work with students from local universities, helping our learners to see where these skills can take them.”
For more information on the BJSS Turinglab scholarships, please visit their website.