Ash Merchant, Director of Education, Fujitsu UK & Ireland

Fujitsu boosts Education Ambassador Programme

Fujitsu announced expansion of Education Ambassador Programme with 20 new education establishments slots for 2016 at Bett

Posted by Hannah Oakman | January 29, 2016 | Technology

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• #ambassador-programme
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Lord Baker, who founded the Baker Dearing Educational with Lord Dearing (to develop and promote the concept of university technical colleges) was on hand to talk about the new development at the show. 

Lord Baker at the Ambassador Programme launch

Working with Intel, Fujitsu first launched the programme at Bett 2015 and the initiative has already supported ten schools, colleges and universities across the UK, by setting up Innovation Hubs to equip them with high performance solutions and support digital skills development.

Fujitsu, alongside partners Intel, Brocade and Kyocera, will continue the successful model of setting up Innovation Hubs at each Ambassador institution and then using the hubs and technology to support project based learning and skills development. The Hubs will feature Fujitsu and Intel® technology which will not only provide students with the opportunity to develop their digital skills, but educators themselves too.

Ash Merchant, Director of Education, Fujitsu UK & Ireland told Education Technology: “One thing I have learnt over two decades in and around the education sector is that passion goes a long way and supports in driving success and achievement. However passion is sometimes not enough – education needs collaboration and support from the industry to really support the right skills development for young people, to lead to future employment opportunity, and that’s what the Ambassador Programme is all about.”

The first of the 20 signed up as 2016 Ambassadors include: Swansea University, University of Northampton, National Museum of Computing, RNIB New College Worcester, New College Nottingham, National Autistic Society, The Anderson School, Canterbury College, Fife College, The Leigh UTC, London Design Engineering UTC, Watford UTC, UTC Warrington and London South Bank UTC.

Fujitsu also announced the launch of its ‘Operation Innovation,’ - a national competition for University Technical Colleges giving students the opportunity to apply their skill and knowledge in a more real-world context.

Launching this year, teams will use Fujitsu IoT technology to invent a commercial solution that could overcome a challenge facing civilisation, or provide a solution to a problem. The winning team will be awarded a trip to Fujitsu Laboratories HQ in Germany and the opportunity to present their idea to Fujitsu’s Chief Technical Officer, Dr Joseph Reger.

Further tech from Fujitsu included the prototype of a free-swiping ring for controlling movement on a whiteboard/tablet (above) and the latest in virtual reality headsets (below)