The Pennine Kids Company has announced a new partnership with Cyber Security Challenge UK and Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster to work with businesses and schools across Yorkshire and build a local talent pool in cybersecurity, encourage investment in STEAM, future-proof the workforce and ensure a more-resilient grassroots economy.
Every local business and school has the opportunity to get involved in something quite exciting but also a game-changer for Huddersfield, Kirklees and the Yorkshire economy.
COVID-19 has turned life upside-down. Young people are now even more concerned about their future prospects, especially with the disruption around their education. Businesses are adapting to the ‘new-normal, but they still fear the impact of the looming skills gap crisis amongst millennials on their ability to survive. New ways of working using online technologies are driving Post-COVID-19 recovery and resilience, with cybersecurity protecting everything we value, trust and do online.
With support from local businesses, we can do things better, differently. Easing concerns that young people have about future employment and helping to bridge the skills gap. Bringing more investment, jobs and opportunities to Huddersfield and Kirklees.
The Partnership believes that local businesses are on a journey with young people, starting at the earliest opportunity and certainly well before they choose their GCSE subjects. Providing young people the information they need to make informed decisions about future local employment as early as possible.
To help them achieve this we provide schools with a range of employer partnered services, from STEAM events for girls to CyberStreet, our unique online resource, showcasing real information, images and stories direct from local employers and business owners about what they do, who they do it for and most importantly, what skills, characteristics and qualifications are needed to deliver that work – critical for our post Covid-19 generation employees.
To help us in our new quest to elevate Kirklees to become a showcase area for STEAM and Cyber Security careers in the future, we have formally partnered with Cyber Security Challenge UK (supported by the National Crime Agency and Northrop Grumman a global aerospace and defence technology company), to run regional competitions, learning programmes and networking initiatives aimed at inspiring and enabling young people from all backgrounds, to not only consider careers linked to cyber security, but also to provide them with the life skills and know-how to protect themselves, their friends, families and communities from the financial, economic and social risks associated with the online technologies. These skills will also be vital to employers as more staff continue to work from home in the future.
We are now looking for local Kirklees based businesses to contact us and help support our work by joining our virtual school mentoring / sponsorship programmes in advance of the launch in late October of the National Cyber Centurion Challenge Competition, which we have local schools lined up to participate in.
The Pennine Kids Company (a social enterprise), was established in 2017 by a group of Kirklees based business owners, to inspire children and young people and tell them about all the exciting companies and opportunities that exist on their doorsteps.
Please contact valda@penninekids.uk for more information on how to help us inspire our future workforce.