London firms inspire sixth formers to consider data centre careers

Two prominent London organisations, VIRTUS Data Centres and HireHigher, recently arranged an event with an aim to motivate sixth form students to contemplate a career within the data centre industry. The event brought together industry's rising stars and students from two London-based schools: Logic School and St Marks.

The founder of HireHigher, Adelle Desouza, stipulated that 'the industry needs an injection of the best talent' and her 'aim is to work with data centre specialists like VIRTUS to bring the industry to life.' The event saw 60 students being hosted, and their enthusiasm was clearly evident through their active participation, asking a myriad of questions and engaging in insightful conversations with the industry's Rising Stars about potential career routes.

Anna Marriott, the SVP of People & Organisation at VIRTUS Data Centres, stated: 'We are excited to partner with HireHigher to explain the critical importance of the digital infrastructure industry, the diverse range of roles we have to offer and how young people can embark on an exciting and successful career path within it.' The organisers also intended to help students understand the fundamental role of data centres in powering the apps they use daily.

Anna also added: 'experienced staff from VIRTUS joined the students to share their own education and career stories to encourage and nurture early talent development in our industry. We want to inspire the student visitors to explore our fast-growing industry as a place where they would feel happy and excited to work.' The company aims to show young aspiring professionals that they can make a significant contribution in keeping the world up and running.

The assistant Headteacher at St Marks Catholic School, Laura Joyce, claimed: 'The Rising Stars in Schools event was a fantastic experience for our Year 12 students. The morning session was really powerful in helping our students to begin to identify and articulate their natural motivations and preferences in a working environment.' The school believes that students were clearly influenced by the positive messaging concerning their potential contribution to the industry and are now considering careers they had not contemplated previously.

Overall, according to a statement from the company, this event was 'a resounding success', with both VIRTUS Data Centres and HireHigher taking a proactive approach in their commitment to attract new, young talent into the data centre industry, setting the pace for how companies should engage with local communities, schools and students to bridge the industry's skills shortage.

HireHigher brings together schools, students and Rising Stars in the tech industry with industry partners, businesses and careers organisations to showcase the careers available to everyone in the industry. HireHigher is taking action to improve careers advice in schools and partner with organisations that will help create real action within the industry to attract new talent and contribute in a positive way to the current skills shortage the industry faces. 

VIRTUS Data Centres (VIRTUS) is a global name in the data centre industry and a leading UK's data centre company, committed to delivering reliable, resilient and responsible digital infrastructure for our customers. As part of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), VIRTUS Europe is the home of the cloud in London, and at the heart of Europe.