Part-time study boosts IT graduate's career prospects
A major multinational employer is celebrating the success of the first of its employees to complete a part-time accelerated degree programme at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Stuart Walker works for IT Services provider CapGemini as an Oracle Database Administrator. He’s been combining work with part-time study over the last four years. This week he joined hundreds of other graduates attending ceremonies in Glasgow, where he received his BSc in Software Development for Business. Stuart said: “Balancing work and studying is, of course, challenging but it has been a fantastic and rewarding opportunity. I now have four years’ experience of working in the IT industry and a fantastic degree, so I’m in a great position to develop my career.”
Mark Gandy, Service Delivery Manager for CapGemini in Glasgow, said: “We’re all extremely proud of Stuart’s milestone achievement in becoming CapGemini’s first graduate in Scotland to have taken advantage of this opportunity for part-time study. Stuart has done a great job balancing demanding academic studies at Glasgow Caledonian University alongside an equally demanding delivery role. He’s a role model for all current graduates and future degree apprentices and has a very bright future in CapGemini.”
Hundreds of graduates like Stuart have already benefitted from similar accelerated industry programmes in engineering, construction, IT and computing. The University is now building upon its expertise in industry education to offer part-time students access to new Graduate Level Apprenticeships. These are being enabled by the Apprenticeship Levy and are designed and funded by Skills Development Scotland and the European Social Fund.
More than 100 graduate level apprentices have already begun their studies at GCU this year. The University is the only one in Scotland to offer the Tech Partnership-accredited Gold degrees in IT Management for Business and Software Development for Business. The new GCU BSc Software Development for Business GLA will fuse stronger principles of work-based education philosophy through industry aligned apprenticeship features. It comes as employer feedback tells us they need to bridge a skills gap in our IT and digital industries, where 72 per cent of companies report a lack of technical, practical or job-specific skills in applicants.
Professor Iain Cameron, Dean of the School for Engineering and Built Environment, said: “GCU has more than 30 years’ experience in the design and delivery of part-time programmes and over 10 in creating work-based programmes – helping working people and their employers to get the most from an applied approach to learning. We are delighted to congratulate Stuart and look forward to celebrating the success of many more.”