Arm has a long history of support for schools and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education programmes, to inspire, inform and engage young people and aim to close the STEM skills gap by tackling the barriers of uptake of STEM subjects at different stages in young people’s education. The work of the Arm School Program established in 2018, is a great example of how we ensure that a sustainable pipeline of talent for Arm is created from a young age, to support our wider industry.
We believe that our education outreach activity must deliver impact and value to the students participating and align with learning objectives and outcomes required to improve attainment and achieve progress in their overall academic studies. This in turn raises aspirations and equips the learners with the skills and experience required to enter STEM industries (encouraging development of soft skills such as teamwork, presentation skills, networking and creativity).
To continue this outreach and growth, Arm has expanded on its partnership with EDT.
Arm initially began working with the EDT (Engineering Development Trust) in 2004, supporting local Cambridge schools, starting with post 16 age groups and since 2014 been working with students aged 12-17. We have strengthened our partnership over the years significantly scaling our support by becoming a national partner this year.
EDT are a nationwide educational charity with over 30 years’ experience engaging young people through STEM focused experience days, projects and placements working with over 1,300 schools and educational institutions to deliver more than 40,000 STEM experiences each year.
EDT’s aim is to increase interest in STEM careers through a variety of engaging and dynamic programmes for ages 9-21 that replicate experiences found in the workplace - increasing the confidence and employability of young people. EDT's vision is to create a society where young people across the UK have equal access to engage with STEM subjects to achieve their potential in STEM careers and improve opportunities for further study.
Arm has supported EDT through providing funding and employee volunteering and mentoring, particularly focussed on the Go4SET programme (linking teams of 6 students with employers on a 10 week STEM project) and EES (Engineering Education Scheme) programme (linking teams of 4-6 students with an Arm mentor to work for six months on an engineering project).
“It was truly an amazing and humbling experience. To see all those young people collaborating with each other and achieving for the most part of it, great solutions, in such a short time span of 10 weeks. A great surprise for myself but definitely a welcome one, a splendid hope for the future.” - Arm Go4SET assessor
We also directly contributed to the development of the EES-Applied programme in collaboration with EDT. EES-Applied incorporates the strengths of the classic EES programme delivered over a condensed time period. This allows for a high-quality programme and student experience and employee mentoring over a shorter and more manageable period which is increasingly necessitated due to time pressures and future uncertainties within the modern business world.
The success of the programme was applauded by EES students and Arm volunteers alike:
“Great day really amazing to see the quality of the projects delivered by these young people.” - Arm volunteer assessor for EES, 2019 "Overall, I would like to thank the Arm volunteers who helped us in the project, it was a fantastic learning experience and was great fun and has really helped me further my engineering abilities for future projects.” – Student from the Perse School, Cambridge, EES 2019
“Great day really amazing to see the quality of the projects delivered by these young people.” - Arm volunteer assessor for EES, 2019
"Overall, I would like to thank the Arm volunteers who helped us in the project, it was a fantastic learning experience and was great fun and has really helped me further my engineering abilities for future projects.” – Student from the Perse School, Cambridge, EES 2019
Inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2010, Industrial Cadets (IC) is an industry-led accreditation, which allows employers of all sizes to run accredited experiences for young people aged 9-21, in order to create a talent pipeline for UK industry.
IC provides Arm with the opportunity to partner with a high calibre national organisation to achieve scale and impact to meet our strategic objectives. IC ensures quality through the accreditation process which schools can connect with, offering students a recognised qualification that they can take with them on their journey through education.
For the past three years, Arm has run a one-week year 10 work experience programme, aiming to inspire more young people to consider a career in STEM by increasing their awareness of the opportunities available to them, encouraging their aspirations and helping them develop key employability skills. Our programme has been accredited by IC, with students who complete the programme graduating at Silver Level, with 75 students graduating as Industrial Cadets from this programme to date.
Throughout the programme, learners meet and interact with a wide range of Arm employees and our external partners such as UNICEF, EDT and Simprints, to understand the range of careers opportunities that exist across the business and the wider tech sector. At the same time, learners begin to understand how a company like Arm makes money as they work in teams to design, market and sell technology solutions to real-world challenges presented by UNICEF. The programme requires students to demonstrate teamwork, presentation skills, negotiation skills, and creative thinking.
Arm received some positive feedback from satisfied work experience students:
“I enjoyed the week very very much! This was my first experience of the working world, and it has given me some wonderful insight into a leading technology company and also helped me confirm my desire to take my future working career in the direction of technology business.” – Arm work experience student, 2019 “Overall my week at Arm was very fun and interesting and I looked forward every morning to come in, I believe I learned a lot about Arm and what I would like to do in my future career.” – Arm work experience student, 2019
“I enjoyed the week very very much! This was my first experience of the working world, and it has given me some wonderful insight into a leading technology company and also helped me confirm my desire to take my future working career in the direction of technology business.” – Arm work experience student, 2019
“Overall my week at Arm was very fun and interesting and I looked forward every morning to come in, I believe I learned a lot about Arm and what I would like to do in my future career.” – Arm work experience student, 2019
In summary, Arm’s partnership with EDT is still expanding this year. We have become a National Industrial Cadets Partner, including Headline Sponsor of the Industrial Cadets Award and have also gained accreditation of our work experience programme. Furthermore, Arm has become a National School Programmes Partner, including support of experiential activities in Primary Schools across the UK, plus the “Go4SET” programme in Cambridge EES-Applied (enabling students from Cambridge Academy of Sciences and Technology to work on a real life engineering and technology project) and the Engineering Education Scheme in Cambridge & Sheffield. We also now support Enabling Social Mobility, by providing bursary places on residential university taster courses and a non-residential programme that offers the opportunity to compare both university and apprenticeship pathways into STEM careers.
These are just a few of the EDT initiatives Arm is partnering with in order to work towards our aim of closing the STEM skills gap by creating a sustainable pipeline of talent for Arm at school age, to support the wider technology industry.
“In the last six years it has been really exciting to see EDT and Arms relationship grow from supporting year 12 students to a partnership approach, delivering programmes from Primary age, up to the end of secondary school. All students gained an Industrial Cadets award for their work-related learning. Being in partnership means shared ownership, and I truly believe the EDT and Arm partnership demonstrates just that - a shared ownership to ensuring all young people have equal access to STE(A)M programmes and a belief in investing in those young people.” - Gennie Dearman, COO, EDT
Learn more about the Sustainability Team at Arm and our involvement in STEM education by clicking on the link below.
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