At CGI, we’re passionate about encouraging young people to explore careers in STEM. Andrew Peck does an incredible job as one of our STEM Ambassadors for young people - here’s why he loves it.
July 2023
I have a mind that's geared toward numbers, patterns, and relationships (of the "cause and effect" variety, rather than "When Harry Met Sally"). I resisted it for years and found myself working in other roles but I always seemed to gravitate back toward tech and science… I suppose some people are just built a certain way.
I joined CGI for a six-month role. Over three years later, I’m still here! During that time, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for enjoying working with young people. Recently, I actually invented a tabletop puzzle box that demonstrates many of the adversarial principles involved in cyber security, to a school-aged audience. It's compact (which is good because I travel on a motorbike), doesn't need plugging in, and so far, has been used at major STEM events hosted by universities, community organisations, and (in partnership with CGI) both Lords Cricket Ground and the Olympic Stadium. If I can get it into Wimbledon and Twickenham, then it will have done the set of major sporting venues within London.
This puzzle box is very popular with kids, and it is designed to teach that, with cyber security, there's more than one way to ‘skin the cat’. Whilst there's one code to unlock the box, there are seven different ways to deduce it, each route being linked to an offensive/defensive cyber skillset.
And that’s what I really love doing: showing young people all the amazing things about STEM. I love that CGI’s so committed to deepening their understanding of STEM careers and highlighting routes into the industry that they may not be aware of. Seeing a young person realise that “Wow, that could be me" is a great feeling.
Some of our youth STEM initiatives
The most measurable example of our youth STEM initiatives is the work-experience scheme I've been running for the last couple of years. From 11 attendees, CGI has had three young people apply (and be accepted into) our degree apprenticeship scheme, which is a massive boost to the careers of these youngsters.
This success is very inclusive, with all of my recruits being from backgrounds that are under-represented in our industry. That's what makes me most passionate about the work I do - having a positive impact on our young people and the future of this industry.
If our tiny work-experience programme can get three young people from under-represented backgrounds onto degree apprenticeship schemes, imagine the numbers when this programme is run at multiple locations, multiple times a year. This is almost bound to happen as alumni of the various initiatives find their feet in the workplace and see it as natural to help others reach the same stage in their development.
In fact, our current crop of graduates and degree apprentices at CGI regularly go back out into the community to run the same events they saw when they were choosing their path.
Building the future of our industry
When I was at school, I thought a maths degree meant doing finance or accountancy, which to me, are deeply boring subjects. If someone had come to our school and talked about cryptography or some of the orbital mechanics' problems that my colleagues are currently tackling, maybe I'd have followed a different life course.
This is why I want young people to know the full breadth of their options - so that they can find the path in life that's right for them. STEM is such a broad and exciting field and the opportunities to make an impact are pretty extensive. Aside from this, if we don’t encourage young people today to learn about STEM and explore careers in this industry, we won’t have the workforce we need for the future!
Find out more about our Youth STEM initiatives here.
