Cranford Review 2019

Future Leaders
Technology
Programme for Girls
In
March 2019 Mr Watton
told year 10 girls about
an amazing opportunity that
had come up for a week’s work
experience at the end of May in
Canary Wharf, working for one of
the worlds top four accountancy
firms, KPMG. There was only one
catch, there was an application
process which was very hard and
we would be up against many other
schools. The application process
involved us having to come up
with what we thought would be
the next ‘big’ thing in technology
– it really made us think. Once
we had written about our ideas
which ranged from electric cars
to nano bots and health apps, we
had to wait to know who had been
successful. We knew that there
were lots of other schools involved
so the wait was tense. Eventually
we heard that 5 girls had been
chosen. We had our first meeting
with the mentors on Friday 10th
May 2019 and after the meeting
we were more than ready for the
placement to start.
On the morning of Monday 20th
May 2019 me, Zehra, Holly,
Iman and Aliya met Mr Watton
at Hounslow West station. One
hour later we arrived in the
amazing Canary Wharf, where we
happened to meet Aadil Awan, our
old Head Boy in the tube station
(he is there doing a Higher Level
Apprenticeship) who he took us
to the huge and impressive KPMG
building. We got our passes
and then we were off.
On the Monday we had an
introductory session, where
we met Anna Somaya and
Nigel Slater (not the chef) in
which we learnt how technology
is influencing all fields of work
and how broad the industry is. We
had some hands on experience
in AR and VR including using a
VR headset. We also tried to find
solutions to problems using tech by
going to Canary Wharf shopping
centre and looking around.
On Tuesday we took part in a
coding project (HTML coding)
and also created a website about
an influential woman in tech.
This was taught by Laura from
‘Taught by Humans’. Also, we
had a graduate carousel where we
met a range of people who joined
through the graduate scheme.
We don’t need to have a tech
background in order to get a job
in technology and that you should
study whatever you want and
enjoy to find a job that fits you
rather than changing yourself to
try and fit the criteria for what you
believe to be a good job.
On Wednesday, for the first half
of the day, we stayed with our
mentors. They gave us advice and
help, and said that if we needed
anything in the future they would
be happy to help. In the afternoon,
we met the CIOAs of the company
and they did an activity with us, in
which we had to solve the problem
of plastic waste from coke. We
then met two people from cyber
security who talked about the
different problems that can destroy
infrastructure, systems and hurt
the people who use them.
On Thursday we attended an
educational workshop in which
we learnt about IT services.
This consists of things such as
networking, hardware and user
interface. We learnt how data
travels along a network and about
different parts of a computer.
We also got to dismantle one.
Finally, we learnt about how
KPMG is inclusive towards all
employees including those with
hearing and sight impairments
and the technologies they use to
help them. We also got to meet
one of the managers from a
team in IT design who taught us
how different technologies are
designed and made together in a
team and can forever be improved.
In the afternoon, we planned in
groups our presentations on a
technology we could design using
new inventions that would help
solve problems in specific sectors.
On our final day we gave our
presentations on how we would
improve different sectors of
British industry. They were a huge
success. We then learnt about
diversity in the workplace and how
companies could become more
inclusive of people from different
backgrounds. At the end of the
day, we received a talk on potential
careers and routes at KPMG. We
had an amazing time on our work
placement. We learned so much
and made such great contacts. We
are really grateful to Mr Fraser
and Cranford for giving us such a
fantastic opportunity.
Lerin Bajaj (year 10)
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