Real projects become even more valuable when students get to learn alongside the people doing the job every day.
A huge thank you to Nimble Approach for supporting Manchester Digital's T Connect programme by providing a team of volunteer technical mentors who worked alongside T Level students throughout their latest project.
Over the course of several weeks, Daniel Jones, Emily Birley, James Whiteley and Hasib Ahmed volunteered their time to support student teams, answering technical questions, challenging ideas and helping students develop the agile ways of working, collaboration and project management skills used in modern software teams.
Rather than simply providing answers, the mentors encouraged students to think differently, shared industry best practice and gave valuable insight into what delivering real client projects is like.
The Nimble team also joined the students' final presentations, providing a technical review and stakeholder feedback that helped recreate the experience of presenting work in a professional environment. Craig Haslam and Matt Carroll also supported the project, helping oversee Nimble's involvement.
Hasib Ahmed explained why volunteering was important to him:
"I volunteered because I didn't have this kind of access to mentoring when I was figuring out my own career, and it seemed like a great way to give something back to people who are in the position I was in a few years ago.
"A lot of the career advice students get is generic. Sitting with them for a few hours and just answering honestly seems to land better than most of the formal stuff around it. As well as the technical support we can give to lead students to the right places to find their own answers, which is a skill they'll only build upon as they progress through their professional careers."
The experience also proved valuable for the mentors themselves.
"If I took anything away, it's that I should probably explain my own job more simply, more often and take a step back to give just the right level of information, not to overwhelm who I'm speaking to. It was a good exercise, not just for the students' benefit. I've also learnt some more ways of mentoring people and employed a few different methods to make sure the right information landed well with individual students.
"Glad I did it, and keen to help with the grad programme when it comes round."
The impact was clear from student feedback throughout the programme:
- "Having technical mentors is useful as they can give clear feedback and suggestions which help a lot."
- "Technical mentors were really supportive and helped a lot."
- "Dan was really helpful in making sure I knew the knowledge behind the work."
- "Having technical mentors available decreased the amount of time I was stuck on something."
Employer involvement like this is what makes Greater Manchester's tech ecosystem unique. By giving their time and expertise, businesses are investing directly in the region's future workforce, helping strengthen the local talent pipeline while giving young people genuine insight into careers they may never have been exposed to otherwise. For many students, programmes like T Connect provide their first opportunity to build meaningful relationships with professionals working in the roles they aspire to.
A huge thank you once again to everyone at Nimble Approach for helping make this project such a valuable experience for our students.
If your organisation would like to support the next generation of digital talent through Manchester Digital's other early talent programmes, we'd love to hear from you. Contact Lucy Heffernan to find out how you can get involved.
