- Our Career Pathways programme launched in September 2024, with SPF funding and support from Digital Futures Cornwall.
- 19 of 23 participants graduated from the first cohort in February, with a graduation ceremony held at the BIG Cornish Tech Showcase.
- 5 projects developed on the programme were also showcased at the event
We are celebrating the completion of the first Career Pathways programme and the accomplishments of its first cohort, with nineteen participants from a wide range of backgrounds and demographics graduating with new skills and experience in web dev, embedded systems, data science & AI, and DevOps.
The unique, self-directed upskilling programme launched in September 2024, with support from Digital Futures Cornwall and the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), which enabled Tech Cornwall to offer the programme for free, reducing financial barriers to tech careers.
With ED&I and social mobility at the forefront, the Career Pathways programme promoted inclusion and flexibility by allowing participants to learn at their own pace and balance their studies with work, family, and health commitments.
Reflecting on her experience, Neve Hoccom said that “the combination of self-led learning and in-person workshops was one of the best structures we could have in a programme like this. As I’m also studying at university, I find that my free time can often be limited and can change quite suddenly, so being able to do self-study meant I could focus on myself when I was able to. I had no deadlines to focus on and no stress with trying to fit in various different classes. Having the additional in-person events timed in the evenings also meant I was usually able to attend them — if it had been any other structure, I may not have been able to attend and therefore wouldn’t have chosen this programme.”
Having worked as a golf-green keeper since 2005, student Martyn Vallance also praised the accessibility of the course, saying he “fancied a changing [his] career after 20 years of working outside. I haven’t worked with computers since university… so it’s given me a lot of knowledge from a lot of people that are in the industry. I’ve learnt plenty of things about programming. I’m not an expert yet, but I hope to keep learning!”
In total, 23 individuals took part in the programme, aged between 20-60, with an almost 50-50 split of men and women. Student Don Atherton highlighted the wide range of topics available to suit each person, no matter their age, interests and levels of experience, saying “that’s what the programme is for; to help people find where they fit in”.
A graduation ceremony was held at the BIG Cornish Tech Showcase in February, where five projects developed on the programme were presented to attendees at the Career Pathways stand.
- The Emotion Face-off game, developed by Berta Valverde and María Florencia Ferreira, is an interactive web app that challenges players to recognise emotions from facial expressions and compare their guesses with AI predictions. It combines real-time emotion recognition with machine learning to create an engaging and educational experience.
- Cyber Sorted, a website for sole traders and micro businesses to learn about cyber security, developed by Emily King and Kelly Crawford, offers explainers, exercises and templates to coax users to fulfill the requirements of Cyber Essentials, so that if they decide to get certified, the process will be easier for them.
- Golf Hourgrass, developed by Martyn Vallance, is a progressive web app for the golf industry, allowing greenkeepers to record time spent on individual golf course operations, enabling the digital transformation of work practices such as machinery cutting hours.
- Access Able, developed by Neve Hoccom is a project that aims to help inform people with disabilities about the accessibility of the facilities around them. The project currently takes the form of a lightweight map app, which can be used to identify how accessible a location might be, and allows users to upload information about how accessible an area is.
- Top Tech Talent Card, developed by Don Atherton in response to a client brief from Tech Cornwall to create a version of Top Trumps for the Big Cornish Tech Showcase to highlight the Tech Talent in Cornwall.
Following the completion of the Data Science and AI programme in, María Florencia Ferreira shared her experience of the course on LinkedIn, saying: “It’s been a great experience diving into machine learning and data science, working on real projects and learning from a fantastic community. After 6 weeks working on this in my free time (after my formal role as a researcher), we completed the project and deployed it on Google Cloud.”
Commenting on LinkedIn after her graduation at the BIG Tech Showcase, Emily King said: “It was lovely to graduate… For I’m now the happy owner of my new Career Pathways Programme: Digital Skills Development certificate of achievement from Tech Cornwall! And hopefully soon, the final project I’ve been doing will go live. You’ll all be some of the first to know when it does.”
