Technology experience for students
Three of our Year 10 students were fortunate enough to be selected for a Careers Week workshop at international technology company ARM. Based in Cambridge, the boys travelled in each day and took part in workshops, project development and office-based problem-solving. Oliver Pulley, Edward Weekes and Oliver Haley comment on their week:
Oli P: Our experience was simply amazing – throughout the week I thoroughly enjoyed all the activities I participated in. ARM, which stands for Advanced RISC Machines, is a company that designs chips used within 97% of technology.
Within the week we had multiple tasks to do: the main task was in groups where we worked together for a solution to a problem presented to us by UNICEF. Other tasks required us to create advertisements and work together in cryptography challenge. The skills learnt throughout this experience will benefit me extremely as I had to perform with strangers to fulfil a solution to the problem; giving me good decision-making skills, communication skills and leadership skills as I acted as a leader within the group itself.
Overall I would highly recommend for others to take this opportunity if presented to them as it was a highly beneficial and enjoyable experience for me to partake in.
Ed: The week at ARM was based around one key problem – chosen out of the three that were supplied by UNICEF – that we had to create a solution for using an ARM processor. After first designing our solution to this problem, we had to create a presentation about it which we used when we pitched the idea on the last day to the whole group and some ARM employees.
We worked in teams throughout the week, building up our teamwork and communication skills, and there were a plethora of informative talks from members of the company: engineers, software developers, quality controllers, lawyers, patent writers – we also got to meet one of the 12 founders who talked about what it was like creating the £24 billion company that ARM is today.
I particularly enjoyed the demonstrations (eg. Rubik’s cube solving lego robot), talks from employees, the careers carousel, gaining my silver industrial cadets certificate, how my teamwork/communication skills improved … and the food at breaks!
Oli H: I did lots of interesting things and had many great experiences at ARM – from lots of different talks to a display of a Rubik’s cube-solving robot. In particular I enjoyed the cryptography challenge where we all worked together as one group to reach a common goal. Overall I enjoyed my experience and felt that my team grew in confidence, creating a great presentation and making us runners-up in the competition on the last day.
Our photograph above shows the BVC students with Simon Humphrey, Senior Sustainability Manager at ARM.