BELFAST students have made history by becoming the first in the north to start a technology course designed to improve social mobility and inclusion.
Twenty students at Queen’s University are part of the first cohort for PwC's technology degree apprenticeship - a fully -funded four year university programme that combines traditional qualifications with the advantage of also having a job with the UK’s leading graduate employer.
Across the UK, five universities are offering the course, with a total of 111 students part of the first intake. In selecting students, advancing diversity is a key goal; in Belfast, a quarter of the group are female, well above the 16.5 per cent national average for women participating on computer science programmes.
Speaking at a ceremony at Queen's yesterday, PwC chief people officer, Laura Hinton described the students as the future of the firm.
"We want to employ the most talented people and the more routes we have into our profession, the more successful we will be in reaching them," she said.
"There's rightly a lot of talk about the technology skills gap, the need to build those skills across the UK, and for more diversity in the sector.
“Our tech degree apprenticeships are about taking action to make this happen. They build on a number of steps we've taken including offering paid internships, extending our schools outreach, and our TechSheCan charter to increase the number of women in technology roles.”
