Northern Ireland school teacher is helping to ‘upskill the next generation’

A Northern Ireland school teacher is helping to ‘upskill the next generation’.

Clare McGrath is the creative digital technology leader at St Malachy’s College in north Belfast and the driver of the college’s digital hub.

Clare first joined the college 11 years ago and was originally head of physics, before leading the new hub when it launched in September 2022.

In that time she has seen first-hand the added benefit of upskilling staff and teachers which she believes can create an important pipeline to help plug the skills shortage in Northern Ireland.

She explained: “It’s a hands-on approach to better equip students and teachers with the digital skills they need for a connected world and careers in Northern Ireland.

“Technology won’t wait around. We’ve seen just how quickly the field has evolved even in the last two years, what with the daily advances in artificial intelligence. That’s why, using the hub and its hands-on approach as a vehicle, we want to future-proof the skillset of our pupils and staff, so collectively we are better equipped for the digital future.”

The creative facility is filled with the very latest in technology for learning including high-specgaming computers, LEGO robots and VR equipment, the Digital hub has enabled pupils and staff from across the North Belfast Learning Community to develop their digital skills within the fields of coding, robotics, virtual reality, and more.

It is used regularly by more than 200 key stage 3 pupils from Dominican College Fortwilliam, Belfast Boys’ Model and Belfast Model School for Girls, with students using the hub as a space to further grow in the areas of problem-solving, creative innovation, and communication.

Having spearheaded the initiative, Clare was awarded top honours at this year’s Women in Tech Awards where she was named Outstanding Woman in Tech 2024 recently.

The event, curated by Women in Business, welcomed more than 300 guest from across the tech sector to showcase the sector’s most inspirational individuals and their positive contribution to the local economy.

She continued: “It was a personal honour to be recognised by Women in Business at this year’s Tech awards. I was fortunate enough to be in the company of some remarkable women all of whom are doing incredible things in the digital space.”

Speaking on the Digital Hub, in particular, Clare added: “On another level, it was a real opportunity to speak about the work of the Hub in a room filled with Northern Ireland’s tech luminaries.

“At the heart of it, it’s a demonstration hub showing the ways in which schools can work collaboratively and share not only technology, but also teaching skills. St. Malachy’s is very keen to work openly right across North Belfast’s learning community so we can collectively prepare and skill our pupils for careers which are here in NI today and for those not even imagined yet!

“We’re equipping pupils at an important stage of their learning, too, introducing to them new subject areas and technologies to help them in choosing their GCSEs and A-Levels.”

St Malachy’s College has also won another award in the digital world. The College was announced as winner of the ICT Excellence Award 2024 for the work of the state-of-the-art digital hub within the North Belfast Area Learning Community. St Malachy’s was represented at the Award ceremony in the Merchant Hotel along with their partner schools, Belfast Boys’ Model School and Dominican College, Fortwilliam.

This latest award is now added to the following list: Google reference School, Digital Schoolhouse, Cyberfirst Silver Award, Outstanding Woman in Technology – Clare McGrath (Senior Digital Leader) and Lego League, Business, Beltech EDU App Design.