UTC Heathrow and Partners have won the ‘Best Talent Developer’ award at the prestigious Data Centre World presentation.
The award was handed out at one of the world’s biggest gatherings of digital infrastructure professionals, Data Centre World, which took part at ExCeL London earlier this month.
The award was given in recognition of the Northwood school’s Digital Futures programme, a UK-first engineering and IT curriculum which launched in November 2021, designed to help combat a skills gap in the digital infrastructure industry.
UTC Heathrow staff, along with 17 eager students, set up in a specially created VIP Student Zone, alongside representatives from the ten data services companies who are supporting the programme.
These UTC Heathrow Partners are competitors in the data services world, but have collaborated to come up with an education programme that not only makes youngsters aware of the variety of careers available, but also trains them in the skills they need to succeed.
Summing up the joy of the win, President and CEO of CNet Training, Andrew Stephens, who was instrumental in getting the initiative off the ground, said: “It’s an amazing win for all of the partners, and the UTC and its students. It’s been a long time in the making, I’ve been invested in it for the last six years – but to see everybody run up to the stage, to see how excited they are and to see the students jump up on stage, it really means a lot. It’s a legacy we can be proud of, it’s something we can build on and replicate – there’s no excuse now for us not to have a talent pipeline. Congratulations to everyone who’s been involved, it’s brilliant and I’m so, so proud.”
