Class of Your Own and Bentley Institute partner in secondary school learning programs to advance skills for future infrastructure professionals
Class of Your Own, a UK-headquartered provider of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) curriculum and built environment-focused learning programs for secondary school students, today announced a partnership with leading global provider of software solutions for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, Bentley Systems. The new, future-focused global curriculum, Design Engineer Construct!® (DEC) for the World’s Infrastructure, has developed over several years through Bentley Institute’s support of Class of Your Own’s DEC programs and provides opportunities for students to gain hands-on knowledge and skills for careers in infrastructure professions.
DEC is currently accredited and used in schools throughout the United Kingdom. The new program is already expanding into schools in Ireland, Lithuania, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates and offers technology education and project-based, real-world experiences through interaction with industry professionals. The DEC curriculum for students ages 11 to 18 years is offered at intermediate levels to encourage and excite learners and is enhanced by Bentley’s engineering design and 3D modeling technologies including ContextCapture, OpenBuildings, OpenRail, and OpenRoads ConceptStation. The more advanced Future Infrastructure qualification framework, for students ages sixteen and older, including foundation level study at colleges and universities, focuses on rail, highway, port, and hyperloop projects.
Alison Watson, founder and chief executive of Class of Your Own, said, “Our vision is to inspire and engage young people and their teachers to reach their full potential through world class education. So, we’re very excited to partner with Bentley to offer the new curriculum, which applies industry knowledge and skills gained in the existing DEC program to the most exciting infrastructure projects around the world. Our students are provided with face-to-face support from world-class sector professionals thanks to industry partners who truly understand what DEC can do. Expanding the program outside the UK means we can offer genuine, meaningful opportunities for students and teachers around the world. We’re helping the surveyors, technologists, engineers, architects, and managers of future infrastructure!”
Earlier in 2019, Bentley Institute and Class of Your Own hosted the first ever Future Infrastructure Challenge: DEC Hyperloop challenge in London. The event included students from four schools in the UK whose assignment was to conceptualize a design of a hyperloop transport system and stations for their own towns, and then to adapt to Singapore. Students from Drummond Community High School from Edinburgh, Scotland won the challenge, and were awarded a complimentary trip from Bentley to attend its Year in Infrastructure Conference, held October 21 through 24 in Singapore.
Winners of the 2019 Future Infrastructure Challenge are DEC Hyperloop, the Drummond Community High School team: Alizah Mughal, Ryan Gordon, Faye Fulton, and Wiktor Rauba.
David Robertson, director of digital advancement research for Bentley Systems, said, “Our partnership with Class of Your Own demonstrates the two organizations’ shared goal of providing students with valuable learning experiences that apply to real-world infrastructure professions and encourage students to pursue those professions. Bentley is very excited to participate in this important learning initiative to advance career opportunities for students around the world.”
Learn more about the Design Engineer Construct program.
About Class of Your Own
Class of Your Own is headed by founder and Chief Executive Alison Watson, MBE, a land surveyor, educational pioneer, and industry evangelist. Class of Your Own has been delivering workshops, projects, and built environment-focused student engagement programs to schools and colleges since 2009 and, from September 2012, the fully accredited DEC learning program.
In addition to the support from Bentley Systems for this and other initiatives, Class of Your Own is supported by Heriot Watt University as a key, long-standing partner in academia and by global industrial partners including Topcon Positioning Systems and Mott MacDonald Group.
About Bentley Institute
Bentley Institute advances the infrastructure professions by encouraging and supporting Bentley Systems users’ ambitions in going digital. Its initiatives attract and advance infrastructure professionals, and future professionals, through continuous learning about technology solutions, as well as project delivery and asset performance best practices.
Press contacts:
From Class of Your Own:
Alison Watson, Chief Executive
+44 1282 680946
alison@classofyourown.com
From Bentley Systems:
Jennifer Maguire, Director Corporate Communications
+1 610 458 2695
jennifer.maguire@bentley.com