Any ideas how DS can get work experience/real life practical experience in computer science?

[Disparagingmary]

Year 12 DS has always really enjoyed this subject and now doing it for A’level along with maths and physics. He’s 90% sure it’s what he wants to do at university and is doing some extra curricular stuff related to it online, but I was wondering if it’s possible to get some real life experience. Any ideas?

Careers lead at school. Ask them. Our secondary organises work experience for year 7 and8 in this field.

My ds went into our local Specsavers who took him on for a week. They showed him their labs and how they use special equipment to diagnose early onset of eye disease (Aritificial intelligence stuff!) he used their appt booking system and also did some meet and greet.

All in a weeks work! he enjoyed is and is currently studying Computer science.

@Disparagingmary just slightly off topic, is your son also doing Further Maths? Does the sixth form offer it?

Is he interested in any particular area of Computer Science?

@OnTheBenchOfDoom no he’s not doing further maths although the school does offer it.
At the moment he’s creating an algorithm to simulate natural selection using C#.

My ds is doing a T level in digital production. (Yr 13)

He's doing work experience as part of that with a start up company in our local centre that houses lots of these. Do you have something locally?

The one ds is with have offered him some work outside of this are are also wanting to see if they can set up an apprenticeship for him.

He's coded some stuff for them they are trying to sell to the military!

NCSC offer free summer residential programes- look up Cyber First

Some universities offer summer residential programmes as well.

Honestly though- tell him to learn programming languages - on his own if needed.

Perhaps he can host / create his own network

@itsgettingweird that sounds amazing. I didn’t really know about t levels and have just looked and there are none on offer near us but they’re a brilliant idea and I think ds would have enjoyed that route.
@spotcheck thank you we’ll look at those courses. DS seems to have an aptitude for learning programming languages. It’s definitely a challenge he enjoys.

@Disparagingmary although universities don't state FM a lot of applicants for computer science courses will have it and it can put you at a disadvantage. There are loads of freedom of information requests which show the number of successful A level applicants who also have FM. I would get your son to reach out to admissions at any university he is considering applying to.

Ds1 is at Durham in his first year, I asked him about FM, he got 4 x A*s in maths, FM, Computer Science and Physics. He says both calculus and matrices are covered in FM and are a massive benefit in computer science. He says it just makes your life so much easier to have that knowledge.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom thanks for the information and well done to your DS he sounds amazing.
Does that count my DS out for Computer Science? Do all universities look for it? He doesn’t want to go to Oxford or Cambridge and was thinking more Nottingham etc.

Work experience has been hard to get the last few years due to covid. I'd think laterally; most businesses of any size have a computer helpdesk team, do you have friends at businesses who would let him sit in with the helpdesk team for a week?

IME you need maths but not further maths to study computer science or software engineering, having been through this with DS. Lack of further maths will rule you out from a handful of universities but not most of them.

We found this guide useful when selecting a university.

I'd also recommend you look at degree apprenticeships which is the route my DS eventually took. Look for a large national or international employer. The employer pays all the fees, you earn a salary, not massive but decent, DS employer pays some of his accommodation costs too (not sure how common that is) and you emerge from university with a ton of experience under your belt and hopefully a job offer. DS is throughly enjoying it and his employer has been great, giving him excellent experience and has already said there is a job for him at the end.

In coding the ability to answer the questions "what have you worked on" and "what languages do you work in" is probably every bit as important as the actual degree.

@Disparagingmary it absolutely does not rule it out. I will DM you in a minute to keep this thread on track.

volunteering at library classes/clinics
volunteering at local clubs/associations many have the need for help with websites or management of projects.

It is possible. Is he on LinkedIn? Do you have contacts? Does he have contacts through parents, teachers, friends? DS wrote a good pitch and contacted a local development company. As everyone was working from home they kindly agreed to him doing a 2 week work-from-home experience with them over the summer. They got him to learn how to use their systems, pick up a new language framework, create some code to replicate things they had done, included him in team calls etc. He enjoyed it and it taught him a lot about how projects were managed, work flow and he's going to be using some of what he learned in his a level project.

I’m not sure where you are based but some of the big firms do work experience programmes for year 12’s. DS did one with Vodafone and I believe Cisco do similar. Also look for Uni taster courses. I’m not sure if it’s affected by Covid but Southampton Uni did a great summer taster week in CS and electronics. We found them both just via Google