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Two local students have successfully completed one of N Ireland’s leading IT infrastructure summer camps.
Newry students David McKenna and Thomas Brownlee who both study at Abbey CBS in Newry, participated in the 2019 Novosco Camp in partnership with Ulster University took place in early August at Ulster University’s Jordanstown campus.
The five-day initiative, which was free of charge to students aged 16-17 and enrolled at schools and colleges across Northern Ireland, provided first-hand, practical experience in the management and development of IT infrastructure and systems in a fun and engaging learning environment.
Professional IT engineers from Novosco, experts from the Connected Health Innovation Centre at Ulster University, and lecturers from the University’s School of Computing, facilitated the camp, which also included a tour of Novosco’s state-of-the-art Belfast headquarters at Catalyst Inc on the Friday of the week.
A mix of theory and hands-on experience, the camp covered networks, programming, building circuits, sensors, machine learning and more.
In a bid to nurture future IT talent during the camp and beyond, each student was provided with a Raspberry Pi, a small and affordable computer used to learn programming, which they could keep.
Novosco Managing Director Patrick McAliskey said: “Novosco Camp is one of my favourite weeks of the year as we get to engage with young people who are passionate about IT and eager to learn, as well as to work closely with the fantastic team at Ulster University. I am also delighted that we have been able to increase the intake for Novosco Camp this year to 50 pupils.”
“It’s an understatement to say that Northern Ireland’s IT sector is fast growing and provides a vast number of opportunities for talented people. Novosco Camp helps us communicate that to potential future talent as well as to help them develop their experience and skills so that they can potentially go on to have a fantastic career in IT,” he adds.
Dr Nicola Ayre, Associate Head of the School of Computing at Ulster University commented: “Ulster University nurtures world-class IT and computing talent every year, students we are proud to say are industry ready and sought-after by global companies, industry disruptors and local technology firms. Our partnership with the Novosco Camps explores the breadth of opportunity a degree in computing at Ulster University offers to potential students. It is an invaluable opportunity to develop skills, raise ambitions and prepare future IT leaders by presenting the opportunity for participants to engage with our state-of-the-art robot, experiment with some of the very latest technology in our research labs and fully immerse themselves in the world of IT beyond a classroom setting.”
Novosco is an IT infrastructure and managed services provider with clients in the public, private and voluntary sectors across the UK and Ireland.
For more information about the Novosco Camp, in partnership with Ulster University, visit novoscocamp.com
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Carolyn Davison, Assistant Director for Higher Education & Quality Improvement at Southern Regional College, has been recognised as a leading female figure for her service to education at the inaugural Northern Ireland Women’s Awards.
The NI Women’s Awards, which was held in the Wellington Park Hotel in Belfast, honours the breadth of talent and hard work of female professionals and entrepreneurs across the country including female entrepreneurs, business women, professionals, civil servants, charity workers and many others.
Carolyn’s outstanding hard work and commitment over the last 30 years within the education sector was acknowledged in making a valuable contribution to the economic life of Northern Ireland.
Upon receiving the award, Carolyn acknowledged the dedicated and committed team that she works with at SRC and went on to say “As a working mum of two amazing young people who inspire me daily to influence every student to be a better form of themselves, I am a tireless ambassador for young people in my personal and professional life - all of which is founded on trust, respect and inclusivity. I am delighted and honoured to have won this award for ‘Services to Education’ on such a special night for empowering women in Northern Ireland.”
Brian Doran, Chief Executive at SRC, added “Carolyn lives and breathes our values of putting the learner first, striving for excellence and working together to achieve more. Throughout Carolyn’s career, she has always put the students’ needs first and has supported and encouraged many, especially those hard to reach students to give their best and to succeed. She has strived for excellence by taking the lead across the Further Education Sector in Northern Ireland on a number of projects and she works tirelessly to promote the College through her interactions with her colleagues at SRC and across the sector. She was also instrumental in developing the first higher level apprenticeship in applied industrial science, a programme that is now held up by the Department for the Economy as an exemplar of best practice. We are delighted that Carolyn has won this award and has been recognised for her outstanding service to education.”
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Local schools attended a reception in Warrenpoint Town Hall last week hosted by Newry, Mourne and Down Council Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Casey. The schools were awarded their first Green Flags as part of the Eco-Schools programme.
Ten schools in total received their flags this academic year, taking the number of schools throughout the district proudly flying the Green Flag to forty.
Cllr Casey said, “Every one of you should be very proud of this tremendous achievement. The Green Flag award is internationally recognised and only schools which have reached the highest of environmental standards are given this prestigious award.
“I have been really inspired to hear all about the work you have undertaken, and I hope this continues into the future. Our environment depends on young people like you and the decisions you make.”
Dorothy Corkin, Eco-Schools Assessor, who attended the reception on behalf of Eco-Schools NI said, “I am delighted to be a guest of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council at your Eco-Schools Green Flag celebration event. As an Eco-Schools assessor I know first-hand the hard work that goes into obtaining the Green Flag for the first time. Congratulations to both pupils and teachers on this tremendous achievement.”
Pete Graham, Education Officer with Habitat for Humanity NI attended the celebration where he gave a presentation on his organisation’s work and how their education programme links with the waste and global perspective topics of the Eco-Schools programme.
Attending the event were teachers and members of the Eco School committees from St Patrick’s Primary School, Mayobridge; Knockevin Special School, Downpatrick; Kilkeel Primary School; St Joseph’s Primary School, Killough; St Patrick’s Primary School, Newry and St Oliver Plunkett’s Primary School, Forkhill.
The event finished with Cllr Casey presenting each school’s eco committee with their Green Flag and a commemorative certificate.
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Science students from Southern Regional College and North West Regional College, in association with Middlesex University, battled it out at the NI WorldSkills Regional Heat for Laboratory Technicians on the 4th June.
This was the first WorldSkills NI Regional Heat for Laboratory Technicians and was hosted at Southern Regional College, the Life Sciences Hub for Further Education in Northern Ireland.
The NI Regional Heat winner was Southern Regional College Newry student, Adam Purvis, who is currently completing the Higher Level Apprenticeship in Applied Industrial Sciences (Chemical Pathway) with Almac in Craigavon.
Second place went to Southern Regional College student, Sarah Casey from Dungannon, who is currently completing the Higher Level Apprenticeship in Applied Industrial Sciences (Life Sciences Pathway) with Randox in Crumlin and 3rd place went to North West Regional College student, Suzanne Ramage, who is completing the Foundation Degree in Applied and Medical Sciences.
The laboratory technician competition is based on real life scenarios in science that demonstrate technical competence in the use of complex instrumentation, laboratory equipment and skills. The competition is designed to reflect the work of a laboratory technician and tests their skills in techniques and procedures to solve practical problems through analysis, tests and measurements while ensuring safe and ethical working practices. Laboratory technicians work in diverse settings which include healthcare, industry, research and educational institutions.
“This regional heat was a fantastic opportunity for higher education students across the sector to showcase their technical and analytical abilities. The competitors have performed exceptionally well under such challenging conditions” said Dr. Asha Jamil, Life Sciences Hub Development Manager at Southern Regional College.
She continued; “Judges have come from a variety of specialist scientific backgrounds from both education and industry across the UK and I am delighted that competitors from NI had this opportunity to demonstrate their range of skills on such a prestigious platform. Judges also commented that they were highly impressed by all the competitors’ technical and analytical skills and their professional approach to this challenging competition.”
Judges were representatives from Middlesex University, Norbrook Laboratories, and also included the current Team UK Laboratory Technician winner, Tonicha Roberts, who is a Forensic Reporting Scientist with Eurofins Forensic Services, UK.
Competitors came from a range of higher education programmes from across the NI sector including Foundation Degrees and Higher Level Apprenticeship (HLA) programmes. The HLA students study their underpinning Ulster University Foundation Degrees at Southern Regional College (Newry and Portadown campuses) and are employed with Norbrook Laboratories, Randox and Almac.
The top performing competitors across the UK will now have a nail-biting wait to see if they have scored high enough to qualify for the WorldSkills UK Final at Birmingham’s NEC in November. We wish all our NI competitors the best of luck.
Check out the Middlesex University website for more information. WWW.MDX.AC.UK
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Over 150 Students from local high schools celebrated their success recently at an awards ceremony for students participating on the School Partnerships’ Programme (SPP) at Southern Regional College, Newry Campus.
Southern Regional College welcomed Year 12 students from Kilkeel High School, Newry High School, Newtownhamilton High School, Rathore School Newry, Sacred Heart Grammar School, St Joseph’s High School Crossmaglen, St Joseph’s Boys High School Newry, St Mark’s High School Warrenpoint and St Paul’s High School Bessbrook to celebrate their achievements at this special awards ceremony.
The School Partnership Programme enables Year 11 and 12 students in the school sector to sample areas including, digital imaging, joinery, beauty, hospitality, hairdressing and motor mechanics, in order to make a more informed career decision. The students on the SPP programme attend SRC one day per week for two years and achieve recognised qualifications on completion of their studies.
Student speaker at the event was Aimee Pearson from Kilkeel High School who kindly outlined her experience of the SPP programme at SRC.
SPP top student of the year went to Gareth Knight from Newtownhamilton High School and the Endeavour award went to Krystian Rosiak from Newry High School.
Brian Doran, Chief Executive, Southern Regional College, commenting on the close partnership working between local schools and SRC said: “The partnership between Southern Regional College and the schools in the Newry and Mourne Area Learning Community provides opportunities to pupils to benefit from a wider curriculum by undertaking a range of courses not available to them in school. The various courses lead to nationally-recognised qualifications that will not only help pupils make better career choices but will also help them get employment in the continuing challenging economic environment.”
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Southern Regional College held a cross-campus competitive event and awards ceremony today 15 May, to recognise the excellence and diversity of project based learning across a wide range of the College’s curriculum areas.
The event was an excellent platform to showcase the depth and range of creativity and innovation amongst the SRC student body across many industry sectors. The event was also designed to provide students with the opportunity to further develop their skills in planning, problem solving, communication and presentation which were the key outcomes of the experience.
The competing students worked on real, live project briefs, connected to local businesses, as a means to develop their transferable skills as identified by local industry – this is called Project Based Learning. Students were tasked with pitching their ideas to independent judges: John Hughes, Brilliant Red; Tom Kinney, Invest NI and Tracey Rice, SRC Business Support
There were three category awards presented for the following categories:
Maggie Grant, Assistant Director for Curriculum – Further Education and Training said; “This event is an excellent platform for showcasing the range of innovative and entrepreneurial talent which we have at Southern Regional College. Students from a wide range of curricular areas throughout the College have been working on real business briefs and by utilizing their skills and knowledge, have been developing and creating real solutions for these businesses. I want to thank all of the students, staff and local businesses involved as it has been a great success.”
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The leader of the Alliance Party, Naomi Long called at Our Lady's Grammar School last week to visit the Politics Department.
The MLA spoke to a mixture of Politics students and students interested in politics.
Ms. Long was accompanied by fellow party members Helena Young and Jackie Coade.
The students listened intently to Ms Long speak about Brexit, the consultation on the future of the Craigavon Breast Cancer Unit and other pertinent matters, as well as answer their questions.
The teachers and students of the Politics Department would like to thank Ms Long, Ms Young and Ms Coade for coming in to speak to them today.
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Bishop Philip Boyce, Administrator, Dromore Diocese visited St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, Newry this week to help celebrate the Year 12 ‘mass of thanksgiving and celebration.’ The theme of the celebration was of gratitude and Bishop Boyce, reflecting on the Gospel reading, reaffirmed the importance of giving praise to all those who contributed to such a successful five years at St Joseph’s that have resulted in significant sporting, musical, social, pastoral and personal achievements for the pupils – parents, teachers, support staff, friends and God.
Head of Religion, Mr Brendan Fearon, also gave thanks and gratitude to those who helped contribute towards the important celebration, in particularly Head of Music, Mrs Sharon Byrne; her choir and musical performers who accompanied the religious celebration with such wonderful musical contributions, Eucharistic Minister Martin Mc Greevy, form teachers and the year 12 pupils who helped with the readings and offertory procession.
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Southern Regional College recently hosted The Big Apprenticeship Event at Newry Campus with a record number of over 250 local secondary school students in attendance. Many of them are currently completing A levels or GCSEs and were encouraged to hear from 28 local employers about the huge range of exciting apprenticeship opportunities that they have on offer.
University is not the only option for young people wishing to further themselves. The new system of Apprenticeships both at a higher and general level, enables young people to earn as they learn whilst achieving degree level qualifications on their doorstep in a more cost effective manner.
Brian Doran, Chief Executive of Southern Regional College commented: “Apprenticeships are an exciting, new and emerging system which develops knowledge and skills that are transferrable with clear progression opportunities from Level 2. Higher level education colleges have been instrumental in leading the way with over 1200 apprenticeships enrolled annually through the Southern Regional College.”
Peter Murray, Chair of the Newry & Mourne Labour and Education Forum, in his closing comments urged students in the audience to: “Go out and get your life skills, if you are better informed you will make better choices. Career choices shouldn’t be made in isolation as they require guidance from teachers and parents. Business is looking to the future and we need people, people are businesses’ most important asset. Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade represents over 200 businesses with approximately 10,000 employees. There are, have been and will be career choices in Newry.”
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