Over the course of a week, our Computing, Networking and Design learners worked closely with three employer partners to complete some exciting work experience projects.
Dr Kitty Hung and Vicky Michaelides from female-focussed wellbeing company, ShenWoman, challenged some of our learners to develop software to support a Chinese astrology dating app.
They not only had to build an application, but construct a complex, multi-faceted platform designed to handle highly sensitive personal information. Our students’ apps had to support numerous functional areas, including secure user authentication, detailed profile creation, a swipe-based discovery mechanism, real-time messaging, and comprehensive trust and safety tools.
Tamara Senior from multinational healthcare organisation, Roche Pharmaceuticals, set our next group of learners another interesting task. Students were asked to build an interactive dashboard that solves issues affecting their existing task tracker.
Learners were required to turn the previous static tracker into a fully functional, real-time document. The group were expected to include ‘due dates’ which automatically sort in order of priority, create a visual indicator that highlights whether a task is ‘within capacity’, and flag tasks that have remained incomplete for over three months.
It doesn’t stop there! If learners are confident that they have fulfilled the standard criteria, they had the opportunity to push their learning further through stretch tasks. These included creating a widget showing the total count of complete and incomplete tasks, writing a script that triggers email notifications to users, and creating a visualisation that shows how much of the monthly resource limit has been used.
The third and final project was set by leading wholesaler of mobility equipment, Mobility2You. Founder and CEO, Alpesh Shah, challenged his group to create eye-catching digital screen designs for either the interior or exterior advertising screens in Mobility2You pharmacies.
To successfully respond to the professional brief, learners had to consider their audience, the duration of the design’s display on-screen, and how they would communicate their message. They also needed to think about how the messages and design would need to vary depending on whether they were being displayed to customers already in the pharmacy, or pedestrians walking past the signage.
Mobility2You set our learners a range of exciting stretch tasks. Learners were challenged to adapt their strongest screen design into three engaging social post graphics for use on Facebook and Instagram, as well as a ‘product spotlight’ screen focusing on just one of their products. Alpesh also tasked our learners to create a one-page campaign brief document explaining their decision making.
For the learners who were prepared to go above and beyond in the Mobility2You project, Alpesh set the challenge of delivering a two-minute verbal pitch to pharmacies considering joining Mobility2You.
The very best work produced in this project could go live in Mobility2You pharmacies across the UK. Watch this space!
Our Computing, Networking and Design learners worked hard on their projects throughout the week, gaining real-life work experience in a variety of digital and business areas in the process. At the end of the week, each learner presented their work to their relevant employer panel. Students explained their process, explored the outcomes, and evaluated their ideas.
Victoria from ShenWoman commented: “I would like to congratulate the students on their professionalism, teamwork, and ability to collaborate effectively under time constraints. What stood out most was their attitude, motivation, and willingness to embrace an unconventional and commercially relevant challenge.
“In particular, I was highly impressed by the level of innovation demonstrated. In the field of IT, innovation and critical thinking are essential, and the students showed both. They displayed strong analytical capability, creative problem-solving, and the confidence to approach the brief from multiple perspectives.
“Their ability to absorb professional critique and iterate their ideas demonstrated maturity, adaptability, and a genuine commitment to producing high-quality work- qualities that are invaluable in the technology sector.”
We’re so proud of our Computing, Networking and Design learners for their hard work.
Think you could apply your digital skills to a real-life work experience project? Be the best you. Ever. Explore Computing, Networking and Design at North Hertfordshire College.