CALLING DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE WORKERS!

If you work in data centres or communications infrastructure then you are one of the people who make the internet happen!  We have about 25 free places available for people working in data centres.

  • Sign up for our outreach activity and tell school students how you keep the world connected by volunteering for a session on the Internet Zone. 
  • Inspire the next generation of engineers and give school students a behind-the-scenes peek at how you keep the world connected.

And it doesn’t matter what you do, we need people from all over the industry - planning, construction, design, engineering, IT etc. Thanks to our wonderful sponsors: Global Switch, Future-tech, Keysource and 4D it will cost you nothing except a couple of hours of your time, and is flexible – you choose when and how much you want to engage.                                                                                                                           

About the event

This November we are partnering with I’m an Engineer to run online outreach to schools to enable children to communicate with engineers and technicians working in the real world.  There are two objectives:

  1. To demonstrate to children that engineers and scientists are normal people they can identify with (80% of children like science but only 20% think of a career in science, often because of the way that scientists are portrayed in media – think of Jeff Goldblum in the Fly!)
  2. To explain that data centres exist and showcase the wealth of career opportunities they offer.

I’m an Engineer is an established student-led, online STEM enrichment activity that organises outreach to schools via online instant messaging-style chats.  Each programme of chats, or “zones” is sector specific and runs for about four weeks.  There are lots of different zones covering engineering across different disciplines, for example the Food Zone, Energy Zone and Aerospace Zone which have already taken place.  This autumn it is our turn with an Internet Zone where children can find out how data centres make the internet work.

So we need people working within the sector to join a couple of chat sessions and answer questions from schoolchildren about what they do.   Each volunteer needs to provide a short profile and then be able to dedicate at least two hours of their time during the period that the zone is active to answer questions.  It is flexible so participants can choose times that suit them over the four week period. Engineers who have participated in other activities report that the commitment is not at all onerous and the experience is both interesting and fun.  “Just turn up and chat - large impact, small effort.” - Engineer, January 2021

While this outreach is aimed at engineers, our sector relies on people from many educational and technical backgrounds, and roles extend well beyond engineering, so you do not need an engineering qualification to participate, you just need to work within the wider industry.   

Any questions? Please contact [email protected]  or [email protected]