Around 60 high school students were given a taste of the cyber industry at the University of Worcester.

Nunnery Wood High School pupils got hands-on with virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and cyber security, while also taking on interactive challenges.

The sessions were delivered by the IN4 Group as part of the CyberFirst initiative, a government-funded programme from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of GCHQ.

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The initiative is aimed at encouraging a diverse range of young people to explore careers in the cyber sector.

The sessions are intended to show students how a range of skills play important roles in the industry.

Brad Dowling, senior programme delivery manager at the business support provider, said: "Everyone can bring different talents and different ways of thinking to the table.

"There are language skills, team leadership, emotional intelligence and empathy, and project management skills, it’s all required to make a tech firm work.

"What we’re doing is about opening these young people’s eyes to that and helping them to realise that they could actually work in this industry."

He added: "Working with universities is fundamental to what we do, and it has been great to use the fantastic facilities here."

Richard Wilkinson, head of the Department of Computing at the university, said: "I asked at the start of the day how many of these youngsters had even been to a university campus before, and the vast majority said they hadn’t been in a setting like this.

"Today is a chance for these children to see places like our Cyber Lab and see how accessible all of this is and how university and a career in the tech industry could be for them."

He added: "Giving back to our community is a central part of what we do here.

"We see it as part of our civic duty, and we take that duty very seriously.

"It’s great to see so many school pupils making use of our facilities at the University, learning and having fun."

For information on courses at the university, visit www.worcester.ac.uk, or for application enquiries call 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk.