Students explore career opportunities in data centre industry

Author: Simon Rowley

As part of its campaign to address the ongoing skills shortage in the digital infrastructure industry, HireHigher and Baker Dearing Educational Trust brought together 60 students from East London to help them understand what careers and opportunities the data centre industry has to offer.

This initiative took place at the industry’s largest digital infrastructure event, Data Centre World, which was co-located within the Tech Show London and involved the students participating in employer engagement tasks around the conference to find out as much as they could about the industry. Working with Baker Dearing, which supports University Technical Colleges (UTCs) to deliver a high-quality, industry-focused curriculum to students, the sixth formers from the London Design and Engineering UTC joined in to enjoy their very first taste of life in the data centre industry.

Adelle Desouza, Founder of HireHigher, comments, “The event was a roaring success. We created a curated route complete with trivia questions for each team of students to complete. Watching the students battle it out in their teams saw them not only answering the questions posed, but having their interest peaked – with so many giving extensive answers. Visiting select exhibitors, students were empowered to engage with stands and sponsors across the show floor.

“Led by current young professionals, our rising stars and industry all-stars, the groups really got stuck in and everyone seemed to get a lot out of the day. I would like to thank the conference organisers, and our headline sponsors Portman Partners and OneEighty, alongside The Data Centre Alliance, EnerSys, Sudlows, KAO Data and LeGrand for making the event possible and inspiring so many students with the work we do in the data centre industry.”

Director of Education and Innovation for the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, Kate Ambrosi, comments, “We appreciate the support that HireHigher has provided in expanding UTC students’ knowledge of the data centre sector. Young people in UTCs regularly engage with employers in highly-specialised sectors, so Data Centre World was a fantastic opportunity to continue that work on a much larger scale. London Design and Engineering UTC’s visit to Data Centre World helped focus students’ energies and ought to strengthen the pipeline of talented young people from across the UTC network who are entering digital industries.”