Hi, I’m Matt, a Next Steps South West student ambassador and a second year software development student at City College Plymouth.
As an ambassador of higher education I’ve had the pleasure of doing many outreach activities in schools and with FE students at the college. Last week I had my first opportunity to work as part of a large-scale collaborative outreach event organised by the NSSW team at the University of Plymouth.
Year 12 and 13 pupils from across the region experienced a cyber attack simulation at a bank. In small groups, they worked alongside higher education student ambassadors from business and computing-related courses to deal with, and manage the attack. I was fortunate to be selected as one of these ambassadors alongside students from the University of Plymouth, and Truro & Penwith College.
As the day unfolded, teams were all given frequent updates, and, through team discussions, agreed appropriate actions. It was a competitive situation where points were awarded based on the teams’ responses.
This was a fantastic opportunity for me, personally, as transferring to the University of Plymouth next year has seemed a daunting prospect. After working alongside the other ambassadors at the Cyber Attack event, it has been a huge relief to see that there isn’t anything to be afraid of. While the university is a bigger institution and the scale may be larger, at the end of the day the elements are the same.
It’s still about learning and developing and that’s what counts.