On 10 March, seven staff members from PwC visited our Bromley Campus to share their technical expertise through a rotation of workshops across areas including: Social Media, Data Analytics and Visualisation, Cyber Security, Working in Technology and Career Journeys – providing a blend of practical activities and industry insight for current IT and Computing students to engage in.

The visit was part of an ongoing employer partnership that has been established and developed over the past 18 months by members of our Work Placement Team.

Speaking with industry experts, students were able to better understand the different career paths available to them, helping to inform them of different routes available to them after completing their college course.  

Matt Jones, Product Manager at PwC said: 
“At PwC, we don’t expect everyone to come to us with degrees. We need a blend of individuals. We need bright students who are capable and willing to learn. Bringing an attitude and aptitude is just as important. We’re bringing in people from all different parts of society. We recruit school leavers, people with BTECs and A Levels and people from universities. Enabling social mobility is tied back to our purpose to solve important problems and build trust in the community.

“Today isn’t just about PwC. It’s about employability. We’re just one small example in a huge market. If students want a career in technology, there are lots of organisations out there that are also working to a similar mindset to our organisation in the type of candidates they are approaching and their overall view of how they now recruit.”

“One of the sessions that we’ve run today is around data visualisation with the intention being that will now link to a data visualisation challenge that we’ll set the students towards the end of this month. Then we’re looking at bringing approximately 20 students to our Moor London Office to hold an awards ceremony on 4 May 2022.”

Michelle Luckens, Student Placement Team Leader at London South East Colleges said:
“I’ve been working with PwC IT Department since October 2021 and we’ve built a relationship over the past year and a half. We’ve met many times via Zoom and Teams and now we’ve got to the point where we’ve had virtual presentations for the students. It’s really important for our students to have that face-to-face employer engagement and actually listen to their career journeys, the jobs that are on offer as PwC and the routes into PwC.”

Teresa Riordan, Work Placement Advisor at London South East Colleges said:
“The students and tutors all learned a great deal and we are looking forward to continuing to work with PwC through the rest of this academic year and on to the next year. Our relationship with the PwC teams has gone from strength to strength and their input is invaluable.”

A special thanks to Matt, Tim, Aditi, Sam, Alan, Chris and Michelle from PwC for providing our IT and Computing students with such invaluable industry insight and careers advice and helping to make this fantastic opportunity come to fruition.

GA