We are enormously proud and excited to have a partnership with Cranfield University, who are the higher education provider leading the development of the new model university in Milton Keynes, MK:U.
A group of our Year 10 students met three Faculty leaders from the University for a virtual consultation workshop recently, to brainstorm plans for a Data Science Degree Apprenticeship. The lecturers were keen to know what impressions the girls had about data science as a possible course and career pathway, and their preconceptions about what the role involves.
We learnt that big data analysis is a huge growth area and that patterns, trends and insights in data are key to companies improving products and services. Having initially written data scientists off as being rather geeky, by the end of the session we were inspired by the creativity needed and the important role they play in sectors such as finance and medicine.
Dr Peter Sherar, from the Department of Computational Engineering Science underlined the importance of visualisation results and being able to communicate effectively, particularly when telling a story to a non tech audience. We were encouraged to examine the ethics of using data by Dr Ruth Massie, Associate Professor in Andragogy, who also emphasised that in order for conclusions to be objective, data scientists need to be from a diverse range of ethnic and gender backgrounds; it was exciting to hear that the sector is keen to recruit more women.
Feedback from our students at the end included how we now realised that data scientists are innovators and can impact the success of so many companies. This event reinforces the importance of informing and presenting as many different career pathways as possible to the girls. It is all too easy not to consider a sector or role just because we don?t know anything about it. Our interaction with Cranfield was an excellent example of this and we very much look forward to the second meeting next term.
Categories: Careers Year 10