Inspiring the digital leaders of the future: BIMA Digital Day 2022
On the 10th of November, three members of our team went back to school for the day to volunteer for BIMA Digital Day, at Parmiter’s School. Phil, Head of Design, Allyn, Lead Front End Developer and Pedro, Junior Front End Developer.
What is BIMA Digital day?
The purpose of the day is to inspire the students from participating schools to consider a future career in the digital industry and give them an insight into what it’s like to work in the digital world.
The Netcel team spent the day guiding the students through this year’s challenge, set by Primark and Royal Mail.
The Brief
This year the students got to choose between two challenges, set by Primark and Royal Mail.
The Primark challenge: Primark is a leading international clothing retailer in 14 countries - and growing. Everything they do is built around everyday affordability. But they want to improve the way they design and make clothes, to make more sustainable fashion affordable for everyone whilst reducing their impact on the planet and cutting waste.
The challenge was to design an advert, app, website or in-store shopping experience, exploring how digital plays a part in improving these experiences, tools, and services to educate customers on sustainability, and make fashion kinder to our planet for future generations.
The Royal Mail Challenge: The Royal Mail is over 500 years old but is still as important as ever, even in the Digital age. Over the past two years during periods of widespread lockdown, Royal Mail deliveries have been a lifeline for some people, with postal workers providing vital contact for vulnerable residents living on their own.
The students challenge was explore how Royal Mail can use technology to improve its services to stay modern and innovative - to create a ‘Digital Doorstep’ of the future to send and receive parcels in the best possible way for everyone, whether they are young, old, unable to afford travel, living with a disability or at a higher risk in crowded environments.
The groups spent time researching the two businesses to inform the design of their new digital service/product. Each group then presented their ideas back to the class. After all the students had pitched their ideas, the judging panel – made up of the Netcel team and teachers - had the difficult task of choosing a winning team. The winning digital solution is to be submitted in to the nationwide competition run by BIMA and sponsored by EPAM, for the chance to win £500 for the school and some fantastic prizes for themselves!
The Winning Team
After much deliberation, the winning team was selected: An App called PRIKARD! A loyalty scheme for Primark customers to accumulate points when recycling or repairing their old clothes. The more points the customers earn, the more discount they get. The aim is to encourage people to get involved in sustainability, to reduce their waste and help the planet.
What did the students get out of the day?
Although not every group could win on the day, a lot of students went away feeling inspired.
One student said:
'I enjoyed learning about how Business and Computer Science join forces and work together in the real world in working environments. I learned about how different companies needed employees with knowledge and skills in both subjects in order for the firm to solve problems and to ultimately survive. I will now research more about companies and what they do whilst using my knowledge of Computer Science and Business to understand how they operate.'
What did Netcel get out of it?
Pedro Silver, Junior Front End Developer said:
‘I am so pleased I got the chance to take part in Digital BIMA Day this year, I had such a great day with the student at Parmiter’s, they were so clever and it’s inspiring to see all the amazing ideas they came up with in such a short space of time! I’d recommend anyone to get involved if they can, it’s a really rewarding day for both the students and the volunteers – I would definitely love to get involved again next year!’
How can you get involved?
We believe that BIMA Digital Day is an important and inspiring event and would strongly encourage others to take part in these events in the future. To apply to take part in BIMA’s Digital Day 2023, follow the link to get involved and find out more: