Here at Runshaw we were delighted to be part of this event as 12,000+ young people and 200+ schools and colleges joined together to promote cyber careers across the county with the backing of Lancashire Cyber Partnership.
School pupils and students across Lancashire experienced what a high-tech career in the cyber industry could look like as part of a week-long cyber skills takeover involving more than 200 Lancashire schools, colleges and universities.
Part of the 2025 Lancashire Cyber Festival and organised by the Lancashire Cyber Partnership, the cyber education week stretched from 2nd to 7th February. Over 12,000 children and young people—from primary school pupils to university undergraduates—took part in cyber-related activities and learned about future job opportunities set to be created by the county’s cyber sector.
Activities were programmed to showcase the vast range of diverse careers that Lancashire’s cyber economy has to offer, including some of the high-skilled jobs that will be generated directly and indirectly by the National Cyber Force (NCF) HQ coming to Samlesbury.
As part of that, the Commander of the NCF, Air Vice-Marshal Tim Neal-Hopes OBE, visited the county and met with schoolchildren, students, teachers, and careers advisors who had been involved in the project.
The Commander also addressed thousands of Lancashire students in a speech that was live-streamed to all the county’s FE and sixth-form colleges. The Commander used the opportunity to outline his vision for Lancashire’s growing cyber sector and the NCF’s catalytic role in that process.
He shared details of his professional journey with the students, recounting how he knew he wanted to work with computers from a young age. This led to him spending over forty years working across different digital, cyber, and technological roles within the Armed Forces. The Commander further highlighted the wide range of other disciplines—such as languages, psychology, law, and engineering—that could all lead to jobs within Lancashire’s cyber economy and concluded that a tremendous cyber career was within everyone’s reach.
A wide range of engaging, multi-format activities saw participation from a range of learners across the week.
The county’s Further Education (FE) and sixth-form colleges – including Runshaw College, Cardinal Newman College, Myerscough College, Preston College, Blackpool and Fylde College, Blackpool Sixth, Lancaster and Morecambe College, Blackburn College, Burnley College, Accrington and Rossendale College, and Nelson & Colne College, and West Lancashire College – came together to deliver interactive activities, focused on cyber skills and STEM education, to groups of visiting Year 9 and 10 pupils.