Last week, sixth-form students from Ousedale School in Newport Pagnell visited MMCC, bespoke software development company in Milton Keynes, for hands-on experience to enhance their learning. The Year 12 and Year 13 IT students had the opportunity to experience real-world development and see how their textbook studies transfer into the workplace. The students completed Javascript tasks that will be analysed and tested by MMCC and spoke to experts in the company about the key stages of software development.
“The students really benefited from seeing real-world IT. Their education is largely theory based and experiencing IT in a working business environment is a fantastic opportunity. MMCC have invested a lot of time and resource to contribute to the students’ learning and it has been an invaluable opportunity for them,” explained Stewart Lee, ICT teacher at Ousedale School.
The students have to develop a web-based application aimed at a real end-user for their final ICT project. As one of MMCC’s core services, the company provided pointers and advice from a working business perspective. Keeping the work to a high standard was the focus and testing the development was the key factor in achieving excellent results.
“Testing is a crucial part of software development and involves specialist expertise. We integrated a test case scenario into the students’ task to encourage them to start thinking outside of the classroom. Technology is becoming increasingly familiar to this generation and it is a part of their everyday lives, so seeing development in a business environment from concept to completion really strengthens their understanding,” explained Stuart Griffin, business development manager at MMCC.
The visit was well received by the sixth-form students, many of whom want to pursue a career in software development. Exposure to cutting-edge development, live customer management and a host of different software packages develops an understanding that text books cannot teach.
“MMCC enjoys working with the Ousedale students and providing them with an insight into real-life software development. We are keen to support the next IT generation. The applications that they are developing are impressive and input from specialists within the technology industry will help to further aid their progression,” added Stuart.
For more information on bespoke software development please contacts Sami Saoudi on samis@mmcc.co.uk or call 0845 65 85 777.
MMCC and Ousedale
