Scottish Business in the Community names Oracle Company of the Year

Oracle's Eddie Chance (left) and Jane Richardson
(right) receive Innovation Award from Scottish
Business in the Community

Maths Camp was established in 1999 to encourage teenagers to pursue future maths studies by combining maths with outdoor activities. The camp combines lessons and problem solving with mental and physical challenges. Despite great success, the camp was cancelled when organizers could not find a major sponsor to support the cost of running the camp at a subsidised rate for pupils.

Oracle, with the support of Ian Smith (SVP UK, Ireland and South Africa) agreed to sponsor the camp. Oracle Scotland is also supporting the camp by working with regional schools to invite students to participate. This year, the camp received 67 applicants for 45 available camping spots—a camp record.

The success of the Maths Camp lead The Scotsman, Scotland’s national newspaper, to call Oracle a “truly far-sighted firm”.

When the Scotland IS recognized an IT deficiency emerging in Scotland’s technology community, Oracle stepped in and established the Oracle Academy in Scotland to provide necessary IT education and skills training to Scotland’s workforce. On July 15, 2006 , Scottish Business in the Community, Scotland’s leading organisation in Corporate Social Responsibility presented Oracle Scotland with a Company of the Year Award for its efforts to help close the skills gap in the Scottish IT industry.

“We are committed to making a relevant contribution to education and corporate citizenship in Scotland,” says Eddie Chance, Regional Director, Oracle. “The Oracle Academy program has been the key instrument to achieving this, and our unique partnerships with organizations like the Scottish Qualifications Authority have been invaluable in bringing this program into a local context, allowing students to access leading edge technology and business skills which will support them now and in their future careers.”

The Oracle Academy gives students access to leading edge technologies and systems and has created an optimum online learning environment with a current curriculum. The instructor-led course helps participating students develop database design, programming, project management, presentation, and problem-solving skills and involves lessons, learning guides, and assessment tools. In addition, students learn business and communication skills, including team-working and presentation methods.

Open to all educational institutions in Scotland, the program began in 2004 and quickly grew from just 5 schools to the current 38 academies. To date, 60 students have gone through the program and another 100 are projected to achieve formal Academy certification in 2006.

All teachers are equipped with the cutting-edge Oracle technology and receive 80 hours of online training, culminating in one week of intensive training at the Oracle Academy Institute, held, to date, at the University of California in Los Angeles. Since 2004, 46 teachers have been trained.

The Oracle Academy team hosts quarterly Scotland-wide interactive sessions with participating teachers, raising awareness of the Academy program among the education community. The sessions enable an exchange of experiences about how institutions tailor the program to suit their unique needs.

The response from both teachers and students at the Oracle Academy tells the story of the impact the Academy has had in the Scottish IT community: Almost 97 percent of Academy instructors report that their students have improved their problem-solving skills, and 88 percent of Academy students reported that they are increasing their IT learning in their Academy class.

Oracle Scotland is working with a number of schools as part of the Scottish government’s "Determined to Succeed " program, established to provide an entrepreneurial experience for students. For this program, Oracle volunteers present a business dilemma to students and work with them to devise a creative solution.

The mentoring program is currently operating in two schools. Students at the Wallace Hall School are working to develop an advertising campaign for the Oracle Academy aimed at students of their own age group. Students at the Burnhouse School are working with Oracle volunteers on an introduction to Think.com—an Oracle-sponsored online learning community.

Oracle’s work at Burnhouse was so successful that the school’s Head Teacher is using the lesson as a case study to advise the Scottish government teaching technology to disadvantaged students. Many students who participated in the mentoring program have signed up to participate in Wallace Hall and Bunhouse School will send a teacher to train with the Oracle Academy in May 2007 – a first for a school that would never have considered that their students were capable of taking on technology skills the Oracle Academy program—a first for all of them.