On Tuesday 8 February, RuTC (Richmond upon Thames College) took part in The National Skills Challenge (NSC), a real-life business challenge competition in association with The Digital Institute, London.

The challenge for this year was to create a sandbox-style game for theme park giant, Thorpe Park. In a similar style to the popular BBC TV series ‘The Apprentice’, students were arranged into groups of six and throughout the day were given a variety of tasks, including brainstorming, designing, strategising and more.

The National Skills Challenge aims to develop the key employability skills required for the world of work, including teamwork, communication and leadership ability.

Pamela Thomas, Computing and IT teacher loved seeing her students getting involved with the opportunity.

“The National Skills Challenge is a clear insight into project management and all the steps needed to complete a project, such as allocating job roles, duties to complete and other various tasks needed to complete the challenge. The students enjoyed the experience and presented excellent presentations; I was very proud of them.”

Students from Business, Computing and Art and Design took part in the day-long challenge, which offered students a chance to meet and engage with their peers in a business-style environment.

Eight student groups were established during the day, with three being crowned College winners. These groups will be going onto the NSC National Final to compete amongst other colleges across the country for the Challenge Champions title.

Anna Birch, Computing teacher at RuTC, organised the College’s participation in the challenge said:

“I thought the National Skills Challenge was an amazing opportunity for our students to participate in a real challenge based on creating a sandbox game for Thorpe Park.

“A range of employability and technical skills emerged with fantastic results. The imagination and enthusiasm of our students demonstrates their ingenuity! We have three teams that will be going forward to the National Finals in April.”

The winning teams of the Challenge were groups ‘Angry Carts’, ‘What’s Really There’ and ‘Thadventure.’

They will be competing against other groups from across the country for the opportunity to win ‘Skills Challenge Champions’ in April.

Check out the Gallery below and see what our student's got up to during the challenge.