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Monday 10 September 2012

IT APPRENTICES


Sam Foster, Peter Woodbridge and Steven Gonzales start with us today (10th September 2012) as IT Apprentices.  I think we're one of the first, if not the first University in Scotland to offer IT Apprenticeships.  
 
The new recruits will be working in the Service Desk, Web and Desktop teams – gaining a wide range of technical, practical and customer care skills.  

I’m delighted that we are able to offer three apprenticeship posts in my team for up to two years.  It will give these young adults a great ‘on the job’ learning experience, whilst receiving invaluable training and support from QA (the UK’s leading learning company).  Our new recruits will tap into a wide range of IT expertise at St Andrews and in turn allow us to produce the IT professionals we need in the future.  Steven, Peter and Sam will be joining the University at a very exciting time – as we approach our 600th anniversary.  We’re the third oldest University in the UK – but we work hard to be innovative, customer-focused and forward-thinking in terms of IT.  I very much hope that they enjoy their experience and relish the wide range of skills and experiences we can offer them.
Sam Foster, me, Peter Woodbridge and Steven Gonzales


Background: 
The Scottish Government has made a commitment to guarantee a place in training or education to all 16-19 year olds.  The aim of this initiative is to make it easier for young people to have access to opportunities and also for employers to have access to a community of high quality young people looking to do an apprenticeship as well as help improve Scotland’s economic future.
The apprenticeships were advertised on the IT page of the ‘Apprenticeships in Scotland’ website as well as being directly targeted towards local schools and colleges.  http://www.apprenticeshipsinscotland.com/jobs/it/
Current clients of ‘Apprenticeships in Scotland’ include:  BBC, IBM, Microsoft, Virgin Media, BT, Volkswagen, Diageo and Fujitsu.
http://apprenticeships.qa.com/

Monday 3 September 2012

UK IT Industry Awards 2012 - Finalist

I'm delighted to confirm that the University of St Andrews is a finalist in the UK IT Industry Awards Project Excellence category. The project nominated is our Butts Wynd Data Centre which we completed in 2011.


This is well deserved recognition of the excellent work undertaken by my IT Services team, in conjunction with our colleagues in Estates, to deliver a high quality and highly efficient data centre. 

I've always considered this facility to be one of the building blocks in creating a world class Platform which underpins every aspect of the University's operations. 

This is a significant achievement, as being UK wide, the competition is always considerable.The BCS and Computing UK IT Industry Awards are a platform for the entire profession to celebrate best practice, innovation and excellence. 

David Clarke MBE, Chief Executive Officer, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT says: "Congratulations to the finalists; they can be proud of their achievements in reaching this stage of our prestigious Awards.  Through the Awards we aim to demonstrate not only the innovation and professionalism of those working in IT but also the importance of IT in delivering business and social benefit."

The winners will be announced on 14 November 2012.  I'll keep you posted!