College News

Learning Visit at Atos

QE is proud of its links with local businesses, links which enhance the curriculum and give students insight into the world of work. International IT company Atos works very closely with QE and opens up many opportunities to students.

Recently, fourteen A Level Applied ICT students from the College visited Atos and heard from Stuart Nicoll, Head of LDC Darlington, about the work the company does and about the role of a software developer and engineer. He told them about how Atos had sent the world’s first text message in December 1992 compiles the fixture list for the Premier League and delivered the Olympic Games results across the globe in under 0.3 seconds.

The students also enjoyed a presentation from Matt Purcell, Microsoft Developer at Atos, who himself was a former A Level Computing student at QE. After QE, Matt gained a first class honours degree in Computer Science at Teesside University and then secured a prestigious graduate job with the company. He was able to demonstrate the world class tools and techniques that he and his colleague, Mike Ambrose, use to build large enterprise solutions at Atos. The students were given a demonstration of code development, standards and source control and the large number of software tools such as Java/ Microsoft.NET technologies that software developers use.

A great deal was gained from visiting Atos.

Student, Daniel Cheyne, commented:

“The visit gave me different options to consider in later life, including higher level apprenticeships.”

QE’s Careers Adviser, Cathy Hodgson, added:

“We are very proud of our employer links with Atos. This was an excellent visit organised by Stuart Nicoll and Paul Wearmouth, Head of ICT at QE. It enhanced our students’ learning and made them aware of the range of career progression opportunities in the ICT industry.”