1. Working in Tech
This pack represents a short presentation suitable for school students aged approximately 10 – 14 years. It is an outline only – TechFuture Ambassadors can use their own experience and resources to flesh it out. Students invariably say that it is the personal element added by the Ambassador that is the most compelling and interesting aspect of any presentation.
The first section is about the type of people who work in tech and would make a good stand alone session. Add the second session - about sectors – for older students or a longer encounter.

2. What sort of person works in tech?
The object of this first group of slides is to uncover and if necessary challenge pupils’ beliefs about the type of people who work in technology.

3. Starter Think about the following questions
Activity
Activity
Think about the following questions
Discuss what you think with the rest of the class.
What kind of people do IT jobs?
Where might they work?
What sort of companies or industries would they work in?
This ice-breaker activity asks pupils to think about the kind of people who work in tech. Start off as a plenary – ask pupils to raise their hands, or write their ideas on post it notes and come up and stick them on the wall. They can then discuss in groups, and present back to others, or you can choose two or three students to explain what they have written.
If they are having trouble getting going, prompt them with ‘what kind of person designed Spotify / Instagram / Snapchat / another app / a game? Did a different type of person design Microsoft Excel?’ Think in advance of some suitable apps that are age appropriate and appeal to both boys and girls.
Depending on the age of the pupils and the time available, you might be able to construct ‘personas’ – pen portraits of the type of person who would work in different types of tech – one might be ‘a young woman, interested in sport and fashion, who enjoys eating out and travel’ or ‘an older man, with a family, who likes photography.’ As an alternative, tear sheets (pictures of different types of people torn from magazines) can work well.

4. What is an attribute or trait?
This is a quality or characteristic that belongs to someone and makes up their personality.
Character traits are often shown with descriptive adjectives, like patient, assertive, cheerful or jealous. 
When describing traits or attributes, help students to distinguish between skills (what people can do) and traits (what sort of person they are). Skills can be learned, but traits are in-built – although you may want to discuss how you can develop particular attributes or overcome difficult traits.

5. Personality Traits and Attributes
Detailed
Likes to analyse data
Creative/innovative
Variety-seeking
Achievement-oriented
Talkative
Socially confident
Structured, methodical
Perfectionist
Likes to analyse people
Optimistic/positive
Unstructured, spontaneous
Activity
Which of these attributes and personality traits would suit someone in a Tech Job?
Discuss with the person next to you.
Do you both agree?
Feedback to class.
The object of this exercise is to demonstrate that there are tech jobs that suit all types of people. In particular, pupils may not have thought that creativity and people-focus are necessary for success in tech.
If possible, use your own story to illustrate this.

6. Task Job adverts Activity You have been given a job advert.
Extension activity
You have been given a job advert.
In pairs discuss what you think the job title is and what type of company the job is for.
What would you need to do to be employed in this job?
What skills/attributes would you need?
You will need to prep for this exercise by either:
Searching online for a selection of job ads, and printing them out, or
Creating some sample job ads from scratch, or
Using some job descriptions from your own company, suitably modified.
Ideally look for strongly differentiated roles in different sectors – perhaps retail, manufacturing, travel and education as well as tech companies.

7. Summary
Certain jobs suit certain people more than others – but often our assumptions about what those jobs might be for us, can be limiting.  It’s worth exploring different jobs within a career and seeing what appeals to you.  
Also our assumptions about what jobs exist in different career choices can be very limited.  We may not have expected to see jobs in fashion advertised as a tech career.  It’s worth looking into career options and the jobs available to see what options there are for you.
Activity
Write down one personality trait that you have that would help you get a tech career.
This is an excellent opportunity to show a video that portrays the variety of jobs in tech. Suitable ones include (particularly suitable for groups of girls) or

8. Where do tech people work?
This section delves into the idea that tech people work in every possible line of business. Young people who see their future in a particular field – medicine, the arts, health and beauty, sport, retail – can be shown that tech represents an entrée into any of these fields.

9. Starter
What do we mean by industries and sectors? Can you think of some industries and sectors that would include IT jobs?
Industries
Sectors
This is an ice breaker or plenary session. You could also turn the session round by offering a list of sectors and asking which of these includes tech – eg football, fashion, airlines, hospitality. Have some suitable sites ready to look at – eg ASOS, Net a porter, Manchester United, Jamie Oliver.

10. What do we mean by industries and sectors?
This is a way of defining what type of business a company is involved in. Examples include:
Machinery manufacturing
Clothing design
Food production
Automobile repair
Personalise this slide by adding your own sector / industry and talking about the importance of tech to it, and / or the way tech is integrated into other functions within the business eg marketing, HR, logistics.
All industries use tech jobs in some form

11. Activity
Activity
In teams, choose an organisation and decide how many different tech jobs you think could be employed in the organisation and what they would do.
Alternatively, hand out sheets with the names of some well known (maybe local) organisations (see next slide for ideas) and ask pupils, in groups, to write down the tech roles that would exist in that organisation.
You could make this competitive – have some small prizes (eg company collateral – pens, badges etc) to hand out for the most ideas or the best / most creative ideas.

12. Organisations Chelsea Football Club Oxfam Lloyds Bank McDonald’s
Google
Sainsbury’s
National Rail
Virgin Airlines
Nike
H&M
Topshop

13. Example job titles Applications Developer Data Analyst Games Developer
Hardware Engineer
IT Project Manager
IT Technical Support Officer
Penetration Tester
Software Engineer
Systems Analyst
Technical Architect
Website Developer
This is an opportunity to talk about the types of tech jobs. Adapt this slide and the following ones to fit with your own organisation’s expertise, and bring in your own story or those of colleagues to illustrate the roles.

14. What is an Applications Developer?
Applications Developers convert software requirements into workable programming code, and maintain and develop programs specific to development fields, such as: mobile phone applications, accounting software, office suites or graphics software.
Applications, or 'apps', can be written for a particular system, such as: Windows or Android, or across numerous platforms, including computers and mobile devices.
Sample slide to adapt

15. What is a Data Analyst?
A Data Analyst is someone who collects and analyses data so that a company or companies can use it to perfect their marketing, insurance, political and/or business practices. The Data Analyst is a highly trained professional who performs the analysis, running various mathematical calculations to determine how the data samples might best be applied to profit the business.
Sample slide to adapt

16. What is a Hardware Engineer?
Computer Hardware Engineers design and develop computers and the computerised parts of other appliances such as computer chips, circuit boards, displays, sensors, keyboards, modems, printers and test equipment.
Sample slide to adapt

17. What is an IT Technical Support Officer?
IT Technical Support Officers monitor and maintain the computer systems and networks of an organisation. They may install and configure computer systems, diagnose hardware and software faults and solve technical and applications problems, either over the phone or in person. Depending on the size of the organisation, a Technical Support Officer’s role may span one or more areas of expertise.
Sample slide to adapt

18. Plenary What would people in the below roles do in the sectors? Roles
Applications Developer
Football Club  
Data Analyst
Finance  
Games Developer
Clothing Label  
Hardware Engineer
Music Label  
IT Project Manager
Telecoms company  
IT Technical Support Officer
Energy Provider  
Penetration Tester
Not for Profit  
Software Engineer
High Street Retailer  
Systems Analyst
Glastonbury Festival 
Technical Architect
Website Developer
Use this as a final quick fire round. Alternatively, copy roles and sectors on to individual cards and deal them out to pupils, creating random pairs to consider. A small prize for a successful idea would be motivating.