House of Lords dignitary, The Rt Hon. Lord Kenneth Baker, will be making a special guest appearance at Data Centre World London on Wednesday March 6, to officially open a VIP Zone dedicated to students of the world’s first digital infrastructure focused curriculum.
The VIP Student Zone at Data Centre World is being hosted by ALET UTCs & Partners – an industry/education collaboration of four University Technical Colleges (UTCs) under the Activate Learning Education Trust (ALET) umbrella – and employers from the digital infrastructure sector working together to deliver an award-winning curriculum, which Lord Baker has supported since inception.
Lord Baker is passionate about bridging the gap between the world of education and the world of work, having driven the creation of UTCs with Lord Dearing, and together, co-founding the Baker Dearing Educational Trust in 2009. The Trust is a charitable organisation which is responsible for 44 government-funded, STEM-focused UTCs across the country, educating around 20,000 students and supported by more than 400 employers and universities.
Together, ALET UTCs & Partners have designed, launched and continue to deliver the Digital Futures Programme, a curriculum that educates young people in the specialist knowledge needed to forge successful careers in the digital infrastructure industry, incorporating the data centre and network infrastructure sectors.
With the combined goal of addressing the digital infrastructure industry’s ongoing talent shortage, ALET UTCs & Partners are setting aside industry competition to work in collaboration to tackle the talent shortage for good.
Industry partners who support all ALET UTCs as Trust Partners, and who help to deliver the Digital Futures Programme, are: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ark Data Centres CBRE, CNet Training, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, LMG, Virtus Data Centres, Yondr Group.
Lord Baker’s distinguished 39-year career as an MP included time as Secretary of State for the Home Department, Secretary of State for Education and Secretary of State for the Environment. He has been a prominent figure in the UK’s education provision, having introduced the National Curriculum through the 1988 Education Act, and he continues to make parliamentary contributions regarding education, youth unemployment and apprenticeships.
“The Digital Futures Programme is offering hundreds of young students a skills pipeline to become experts in the digital infrastructure industry – a life-changing opportunity,” said Lord Baker. “It is just the programme that ought to be available on a much larger scale in Britain. I am very glad to see it being extended to further UTCs for the benefit of even more young people.”
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