As part of our annual Hour of Code celebrations, we were delighted to welcome Lorna McAdoo and  Lucy McIlhatton to Belfast Model School for Girls to speak to a group of year 10 ICT students.  Lorna who is Head of Delivery with Version 1, gave an inspirational talk about the diversity of career choices within the ICT industry and how students can embark upon a career in ICT from many different routes including students who have studied at both further and higher education colleges.  Students were encouraged to not be disheartened by the stereotypical viewpoint that ICT is only for geeks and instead emphasised that ICT is much more than coding, allowing us to learn in depth about ICT roles such as Business Analyst, CX Designers and Project Manager.    Students gained the opportunity to learn of how Lucy, who is a newly qualified graduate began her ICT career in Version 1 as a Managed Services Consultant.  Lucy had studied towards an HND in an ICT related course and after graduating was successfully appointed to the CRM team, where she is responsible for working with a range of clients creating videos based on their ICT systems.  This job role allows Lucy the flexibility to move teams, to work on global projects, to work from the comfort of her own home and further develop her skill set at any time, which is of huge importance in an every changing ICT industry.  The talk was concluded with Lorna offering a Q & A session and it soon became apparent that Mrs Barkley-Smith and Mrs Clarke were very keen to have some questions answered…perhaps considering a career change!  Students learnt that there is a long way to go overcome the gender inequality in the ICT industry, as females are outnumbered by males within the ICT industry, Lorna was very keen to  encourage students  to consider and embark upon a career within this  dynamic, growing sector offering many benefits such as attractive salaries, experience and skills that could be developed and the extensive job opportunities that exist in this sector in Northern Ireland and beyond.

 We would like to thank both Lorna and Lucy for taking time out of their busy day to visit us and deliver such an inspiring and informative talk and we look forward to working with Version 1 in the new year on many different projects within the ICT department.