Leeds City College

Saffy Blellock is taking her next step towards an IT career after excelling in her Cyber Security and Networking T Level.

Saffy recently completed her course with us, which included a rewarding industry placement at DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) Digital, in Leeds. She also enjoyed being one of our T Level and STEM Ambassadors, taking the lead in talking about the benefits of T Levels and technology-based careers to younger students and schoolchildren.

Now in the first year of her Degree Apprenticeship in Technology Services with Accenture and BPP University, she is convinced she was right to take ‘the T Level route’ after school.

A problem solved

She said: “I have always loved problem-solving and knew that I wanted to do something in cyber security or along those lines, and had heard about Leeds City College before, so I looked at the college’s IT courses as a ‘stepping stone’ to doing a degree apprenticeship later on.

“The course was great and the placement with DWP Digital was really nice, everyone was very welcoming. I got to work on a few different projects there, things involving data analysis and data trends, and once we even created an online knowledge article to tell people how to install different Adobe applications.”

Continuing to champion STEM

Saffy is hoping to pick up a similar ambassadorial role during her time at Accenture’s Leeds base, where she now works four days a week, using the remaining weekday to study remotely with her university.

She said: “I’m aiming to become a Cyber First ambassador as part of my degree apprenticeship, which will involve promoting cyber security in schools. I’m really looking forward to starting that.”

Lots of options

As for her ultimate career destination, she is keeping that open for now – but knows it will be in the technology sector.

She said: “My degree is very broad to begin with and then lets you specialise in the final year, which is great, as it gives me a chance to learn a wide range of skills.

“Everyone at Accenture has been really welcoming and they arranged a meeting with people from all the different areas of the business, and the projects they’re working on, so I could find out what they were involved in.

“Whatever I end up doing I definitely want to stick to IT, perhaps going down the cyber security route but I like all sides of IT really – I enjoy problem solving!”