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Work experience/programmes for A level students

Hi, I was wondering if there are any work experience or other general programmes for GCSE/A level students who are interested in computer science, e.g. coding camps.

Thanks!

Reply 1

LRxS

I’m fairly sure GCHQ do some kind of internship scheme, as my friend who’s applying for CS is trying to get into that. As for work ex you’ll just have to contact tech companies and ask.

Reply 2

winterscoming

If you're looking for work experience, the best thing to do is just start talking to companies near you and ask them. It just takes a bit of social networking the old-fashioned way by picking up the phone and writing e-mails. Companies are often responsive to people who actively show an interest in wanting to work for them, especially if they're able to pay you less than their existing employees.

A lot of companies have a huge backlog of low-grade, low-priority tasks which their full-time employees are too busy to do, but are very doable for an intern - That may mean tasks like labelling and tidying equipment, installing software updates, debugging low-priority defects in a system, writing technical documents, etc. It's not uncommon to get this sort of stuff to do on a work placement, but it's also not the kind of work where you'll be learning any deep technical skills either.

Also, don't sell yourself short. Some companies will see an opportunity to ask you to work for free. If this happens to you, then just remember whose interests they really have at heart (i.e. their own), and if they won't offer paid work experience, then make absolutely sure they are able to offer something else worthwhile which will benefit your future studies or career, such as paying for Cisco or Microsoft certification.

Coding camps really depend upon where you live. Big cities usually have quite a few - just search your area on Google. The main downside is that they're nearly always run by private companies who aren't subsidised by the govt or local authority, and therefore those courses are usually expensive.

You could also try searching your area for colleges which offer evening courses - these are usually cheaper, and you could ask whether you can get a discount for being an existing student at another local college.

Lastly, there are loads of free resources and courses scattered all over the internet, for example, the following sites all offer a lot of free courses which you can do at any time:
https://www.codecademy.com
https://www.freecodecamp.org
https://eu.udacity.com

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

The National Cyber Security Centre

Official Rep

Original post by F4N

Hi, I was wondering if there are any work experience or other general programmes for GCSE/A level students who are interested in computer science, e.g. coding camps.

Thanks!

The NCSC CyberFirst team runs a number of courses across different age groups, designed to introduce school-age students to aspects of cyber security and computing. These are put together by experts in the field, and delivered at venues all over the country. The 2017 courses were extremely successful both in terms of numbers who attended, and attendee feedback.

Booking for the 2018 courses hasn't opened yet, but if you keep an eye on the page at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/cyberfirst-courses, and the NCSC Twitter feed, there'll be announcements on there when the courses do open for bookings. Most courses take place during the summer, so expect bookings to open several months before that.