St. Edmund’s College Excursion to RIoT Solutions

On Tuesday 26 July, 18 Year 11 and 12 students from St. Edmund’s College Ipswich were hosted by RioT Solutions for an eye-opening excursion at the Edward St Headquarters.

For Scott Reid, RioT Solutions’ Director of Smart and Connected Networks, this excursion was an exciting forward step in promoting careers in Cyber Security. “RioT Solutions has an awesome team comprising of people from many different study and career pathways. We are prioritising the onboarding of a new wave of workers through our future graduate program and want to embrace the different skillsets that come with VET training and tertiary education. I know we inspired these boys today and hope to keep our connection going with St. Edmund’s and other ICT GISP schools.”

The group comprised of Cert II in Applied Digital Technology and Digital Solutions students, currently studying Cyber Security and IoT. Head of Department: Digital Literacy, Debra White, values the authentic learning experience that can only come from an excursion or work experience, “It is vital for the students to get an understanding of what it is like in the workplace, and to hear from the workers about their pathway to a career in tech. The office, amazing stories and especially the Security Operation Centre (SOC) have really connected with our students.”

Project Manager for the ICT GISP, Matthew Jorgensen from the Australian Computer Society, works with the community-minded organisations like RioT Solutions to bring skills, training and career awareness to member schools. For Matthew, this excursion was the culmination of two years association with RioT Solutions. “Companies like RioT Solutions, and business leaders like Scott Reid, exercise real corporate social responsibility by giving time and expertise to promote careers in their industry to our ICT GISP students and teachers. This in turn increases the pipeline of future workers which benefits the whole workforce.”

St. Edmunds’ College student Luca enjoyed the visit and the wise words from the presenters. “Today’s excursion was really good. It helped us realise that we need to develop our professional skills like communication and collaboration. Cyber Security is definitely a career path that I want to consider. The last few years of school and digital subjects has made that clear to me.”

The students agreed that the excursion opened their eyes to possibilities of working in IT and the different pathways that they could follow to get IT jobs.

Find out more about the Gateway to Industry Schools Program at https://desbt.qld.gov.au/training/employers/gateway-schools. This Gateway to Industry Schools program is proudly supported by the Queensland Government. If your company can contribute to the ICT GISP by hosting work experience and traineeships or excursions, please contact Matthew Jorgensen (matthew.jorgensen@acs.org.au)