Software Testing specialist group event.
Watch the video
Synopsis
BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing will be running an apprenticeship-themed event to raise awareness of testing apprenticeships, and to also launch the Specialist Group’s "Testing Apprentice of the Year Award". The purpose of the event is to increase hiring manager's awareness of testing apprenticeships, by discussing the nature of them and the learning track itself.
We hope to hear from people about experience working with apprentices, or being an apprentice themselves. This is of course very relevant given the current situation young people find themselves in as COVID reduces their opportunities, and that is the spirit of the event. The award that is launched will be judged and awarded to time with National Apprenticeship Week in February.
Dr Vahid Garousi will talk about testing education in general, and Alison Pearce will talk about the details of the testing apprentice track. Following this, we will have a panel session with two testing apprentices, a manager of apprentices, and a test manager who doesn’t currently use apprentices.
During her presentation Alison will talk about the Software Tester standards, an under-subscribed apprenticeship that provides core skills sadly lacking in the sector. She will discuss the development of the standard, the apprenticeship sector and developments over the coming months and years.
About the speakers
Dr Vahid Garousi works in both academia and the software industry. He is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) of Software Engineering in Queen’s University Belfast, UK. In parallel to his academic career, he is a practicing software engineering consultant and coach, and provides consultancy and corporate training services to software teams and companies in different countries, via his firm: Bahar Software Engineering Consulting Corporation. His areas of expertise include: software engineering, software testing, empirical studies, action-research, and industry-academia collaborations. He is passionate to better bridge industry and academia in both research and education of software engineering. Dr. Garousi received his PhD in Software Engineering in Carleton University, Canada, in 2006.
Alison Pearce has worked for BCS as the Quality Delivery Manager for apprenticeships for two years, prior to that working both commercially and in apprenticeships also working on the development of the new standards. She has quality checked over 7000 apprenticeship assessments across 13 apprenticeship standards and works to support employers, training providers and apprentices to achieve the best possible outcome for all.
About the panelists
Klevis Voka
Driven by a passion for emerging technologies Klevis has been at the forefront of the AI, RPA, and the Testing industries over the past 10 years and worked with many leaders and innovators in the space. He has worked as a Test Manager at some the top consultancies, including Accenture, Capgemini, and Dragonfly, and managed global Testing teams of varying experience levels. From managing test automation specialists to junior testing apprentices, he has first-hand experience in understanding the varying needs for a team to deliver effectively.
Yvette Berman
Yvette has over 30 years’ experience across financial risk technology, which includes working at 3 Investment Banks and a specialist consulting firm. She has spent the last 24 years specialising in QA and Testing and the last 11 years of that with Deutsche Bank, where she is currently Head of Market Risk QA and Release. During her time at Deutsche Bank time she has built out QA functions across Risk Systems and has been a key influencer in defining, shaping and implementing the banks QA practices. With a strong focus on regulation across the Bank, in 2014 Yvette moved from a role running QA across the banks Front Office Risk systems to building the QA and Testing, Environment and Release Management team’s across Market and Counterparty Credit Risk.
Marissa Silver
Marissa is a software tester for an e-commerce website in Nottingham where she completed a Level 4 Software Testing Apprenticeship achieving a distinction. She found apprenticeships and software testing by chance and fell in love with it after seeing how curiosity and a passion for learning were highly valued in the testing community. When not finding something else exciting to learn or read about testing, Marissa could be found at charity shops hunting for vintage and retro kitchenalia but now can mostly be found playing board games at home.
Kieran Marriott
Kieran is a software testing apprentice at Dragonfly. He has been working at Dragonfly for just over a year and has worked with various clients helping to deliver software products. He has primarily been focused on automation, and has worked on front and back end systems and created multiple frameworks in Javascript and Java.
Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.
This event is brought to you by: Software Testing specialist group (SIGiST)
