Royal School Armagh student, Emma Whiteside, receives her certificate for successfully completing the prestigious Novosco Cloud Camp in association with Almac Group from Jonathan Graham, Almac Group and Patrick McAliskey, Novosco Managing Director.
Novosco Cloud Camp, which is organised by Novosco and supported by Almac Group, took place at Belfast Metropolitan College’s Titanic Quarter Campus last week.
The five-day summer camp, which was free to students aged 16-17 who are enrolled at schools and colleges throughout Northern Ireland, provided first-hand experience in the management and development of IT infrastructure in a fun learning environment.
Professional IT engineers and Belfast Met lecturers facilitated the camp, which also included a tour of Novosco’s headquarters at Catalyst in Belfast to allow students to see a world-class managed cloud company in action.
In addition to free registration, all participants were provided with a free Raspberry Pi computer to keep.
Areas covered at the Novosco Cloud Camp included: networking, Python programming, basic HTML programming, and creating virtual servers.
Novosco Managing Director, Patrick McAliskey, said: “Cloud Camp was a real success in 2016 and again we had a big response this year in terms of applicants, making 2017 a thriving success too. We know that there is demand for IT skills in Northern Ireland and that this will grow. But it is evident from the registrations we’ve had in Cloud Camp that there is also real interest in IT careers.
“At Novosco we work hard to develop and retain the expertise we have, but with that comes the responsibility to support the development of the generation of IT infrastructure engineers, skilled programmers and future developers. The Novosco Cloud Camp is just one part of our commitment to supporting the future of the industry and growing the talent pool in Northern Ireland.
“We were delighted to be able to work with Almac Group and Belfast Met once again, who too share our commitment to developing the skills of the future in Northern Ireland.”
Andrew Hillis, Group Head of Information Services at Almac Group, commented: “Providing an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally is built upon sound IT infrastructure. Some of the skills that young people are learned last week at Cloud Camp are crucial to the day-to-day operations of our international organisation. We’re thrilled to have played our part alongside Novosco to stimulate interest in IT and encourage potential future employees.”
Novosco is a managed cloud provider with clients in the public, private and voluntary sectors across the UK and Ireland, including Premiership football teams, police forces, some of the UK’s largest health trusts and many of Northern Ireland’s top companies.
Belfast Metropolitan College’s Principal and CEO, Marie-Thérèse McGivern, added: “It was a privilege to once again host the Novosco Cloud Camp, in partnership with Almac Group, this summer at our Titanic Quarter Campus.
“The college has a rich history in delivering comprehensive courses in ICT and guiding students along the path to future employment for some of Northern Ireland’s leading companies. It was a pleasure to welcome this year’s students to the campus and to support them on their informative journey with our excellent facilities and top-class lecturers who worked alongside Novosco’s talented IT infrastructure engineers.”
Employing 150 people, Novosco has offices in Belfast, Manchester, Dublin, and Cork.
Novosco was recently shortlisted for ‘Best Cloud Support Provider’ in the 2017 Computing Cloud Excellence Awards – the only Northern Ireland company to make the shortlist.
For more information on Novosco, visit novosco.com.
For more information on the Novosco Cloud Camp, in partnership with Almac Group, visit novoscocloudcamp.com.
