11th January 2017
A group of Digital Learning apprentices have developed an app to help Barking & Dagenham College students find out about events and activities at the touch of a button.
The apprentices, Alex Bambridge, 19, from Romford, Sisandra Teixeira, 20, from Barking and Tahir Patel, 21, from East Ham, work at the College supporting students and staff with their digital needs. They wanted to create an app that would better suit the modern student. The result is ‘BDCPlus’.
The student guide offers the convenience of having access to information and helpful services right at your fingertip. It allows students to find out about events and activities at the College but also acts as an additional way to find support, guidance and information from staff.
Alex Bambridge, who acted as an app developer and designer for the project is very pleased with the results. He said: “Creating the app was an exciting task because it really tested our ability. There were challenges, but the app has already been praised by students and staff and is being downloaded all the time!”.
Creating and building the app has also helped the apprentices think about what they would like to do when they finish their apprenticeships. As Alex continues: “I’ve really enjoyed being an apprentice. Coming to work each day is always an adventure, one day we’re coding, the next we’re running training sessions. I’d like to progress onto a higher level apprenticeship with the College and eventually move into gaining a degree in Computer Science.”
Tahir would also like to continue his apprenticeship at the College. Building the app helped show him he has a great talent for graphic design and animation and he is keen to cultivate those skills further. While for Sisandra, working on the app proved she had the knack for planning and management which will help her in any future career.
