UTC Heathrow and partners has been recognised with its third global award in 12 months, after being named winner of the ‘Education and Employment Project Award of the Year’ at the Datacloud Global Awards held in Monaco on 26 April.
The award, which was presented to UTC Heathrow and partners for the second year running, recognises the ongoing success of the UTC Heathrow initiative, which sees 10 industry employers collaborating with the UTC to create and deliver an exclusive curriculum for the digital infrastructure – the Digital Futures Programme. Aimed at 14-19-year-olds, the programme aims to tackle the industry’s skills shortage and drive new talent into the digital infrastructure industry.
The Datacloud award judging panel was made up of industry leaders from organisations across the globe, including iMasons, Cloud Origin and the Dutch Datacentre Association. One of the judges said: “UTC Heathrow and partners’ submission outlines an impressive programme that is successfully advancing the industry and engaging young people with its opportunities, demonstrating the potential for significant expansion, and emphasising the necessity of taking action to drive change.”
Rebecca Wall-Morris from CyrusOne; Mike Tamblingson from Kao Data; Andrew Stevens and Sarah Parks from CNet Training.
The win follows another global award for UTC Heathrow and Partners, which saw it named Best Talent Developer in the Data Centre World Awards, held at London’s ExCel centre in March.
UTC Heathrow and partners launched the Digital Futures Programme in 2021 and it has been met with such outright success that three further UTCs are planned to open to deliver the programme, with the first of these launching later this year.
Joanne Harper, CEO of Activate Learning Education Trust – the Multi-Academy Trust that UTC Heathrow is part of – said: “We feel enormously privileged to be able to work with such forward thinking businesses as part of our Digital Futures Programme and are delighted that the work has been recognised again at the prestigious Datacloud Awards. What is even more exciting is that the employer partners have been in discussions to widen the remit of the partnership to open three further UTCs dedicated to the industry, considerably increasing the number of students that the project can reach and truly transforming lives through this innovative way of learning and preparing students for the future of work.”
For the Digital Futures Programme to receive continued international recognition is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the project at UTC Heathrow, as well as the work of industry partners: CNet Training, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ark Data Centres, CBRE, CyrusOne, Kao Data, LMG, Soben, Virtus Data Centres and Yondr Group.
