Coded for success: Tameside College hosts Hackathon
Thu, 02 March 2017
Tameside College hosted their very first Hackathon competition in their new Advanced Technologies Centre, seeing over 60 secondary school students and college students taking part in the innovative coding competition.
The two day competition, which is run by Tameside Council as part of their “every child a coder” pledge for 12 to 18-year-olds, encourages students with all levels of coding ability to take part every year to various coding challenges.
Hackers enjoyed challenges designed to test their creativity and coding skills, set by local businesses including: Brother UK, Purple Wifi, Arcadis UK, Avecto and Tameside and Glossop Care Together.
Jackie Moores, Principal at Tameside College, said: “The Hackathon enabled talented young people in Tameside to develop their coding skills with industry experts in our new Advanced Technology Centre, which is part of the ‘Vision Tameside’ strategy to improve the educational estate for Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College. Although some of the young people attending started with basic coding skills, the vast majority already had outstanding coding skills which they used to provide real solutions to current issues in the borough and further afield. They also made new coding friends and learnt from each other too. The two day event was truly inspirational, so much so, that I personally have started to learn to code myself, after seeing what the hackers achieved! We are told that there is a significant shortage of these skills to meet the sector growth needs so I was proud to be a part of the event and expect to see the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates coming from Tameside.”
Olly Harvey-Shaw, an A-Level computing student from Tameside College’s sister college, Clarendon Sixth Form, said: “We picked the Avecto challenge, which was to raise awareness of safety online. So, we have developed an app, website and social media accounts to do this. The Hackathon is great because I get to come join in, spend time with my mates and do something I love to do, so it’s been really good.”
Paul Mather, curriculum leader for computing at Clarendon Sixth Form College, said: “It’s all changing now. The government are putting an emphasis on learning computer skills early on in schools so a lot of students coming to college now have already been coding for up to five years. As teachers it’s our job to ensure we stretch them and push them further so when it comes time for them to go to university they have even more skills.”
Emma Grant, project manager of employment and skills at Tameside Council, said: “The Hackathon has gone fantastically well. It’s turned out even bigger and better than our first competition last year and it’s lovely to see so many young people in Tameside taking part. We aim as part of the competition to improve their confidence and give them an opportunity to learn new skills and coding languages that they haven’t been exposed to yet. This will put them in good stead for future careers with web development, digital marketing, data and software companies or even launch their own start-up.”
For more information on Tameside College please call: 0161 908 6789 or click here.