Students use FileMaker to learn technical skills

Posted by Justin Hesser on November 6, 2014

FileMaker has joined forces with Network Rail, the operator of most of Great Britain's railroads, to help students at UTC Reading in southern England develop their design and other skills. UTC Reading provides technical education to teenagers as an alternative to a traditional high school, and counts Network Rail among its business partners.

Experts from both companies will be training students to code, design, draw and manage finances over the course of 14 weeks. During that time, the students will be working on designing a theoretical railroad crossing. They will use FileMaker to gather information on maintenance, terrain and traffic flow, among others, which they will then analyze to determine the ideal location for the crossing. They will create a model with a 3D printer and the best projects will be presented to Network Rail.

Network Rail's manager of education programs and the school's principal highlighted the value of projects such as this one to develop the STEM fields in the United Kingdom. With high-level technical education at young ages, they can ensure that their nation remains an engineering leader on the global stage.

"Students will be working on designing a theoretical railroad crossing."

"We're seeing students from the ages of 14 to 18 taking on and providing the solutions to everyday problems we face in our business, managing projects and teams of people of varying age and ability," said Filemaker's Northern Europe director, Tony Speakman. "The skills we are working with them on, such as report writing, are things that they won't learn from an undergraduate course."

FileMaker consultants can provide direction to businesses that wish to take advantage of the many possibilities this software provides, training employees to gather data and customize and update their databases to fit their companies' needs.