National Data Centre Day (NDCD) has partnered with AVK and STEM Learning to give data centre professionals a route into schools through the STEM Ambassadors programme.
The initiative will encourage people working across the sector to register as STEM Ambassadors and take part in careers talks, classroom sessions and mentoring.
Rather than creating a separate volunteering network, the partnership will plug data centre professionals into STEM Learning’s established programme, which has more than 30,000 volunteers across the UK.
It comes as the industry continues to struggle with recruitment. Uptime Institute’s 2026 Global Data Center Survey found that more than half of respondents were having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open roles, up from 46% in its 2025 survey.
The new programme is aimed further upstream, seeking to increase awareness of data centre careers before young people reach the jobs market.
Severine Trouillet, Chief Executive of STEM Learning, noted, “Meeting role models who showcase the professionals, technology and skills behind data centres is invaluable for young people and their future career opportunities.
“These interactions improve pupils and students’ understanding, while helping them to see a career in data centres and associated technology as a viable, exciting and achievable option.”
The initiative builds on other efforts to strengthen the sector’s future workforce. AVK has previously invested in the skills pipeline through the AVK Academy, a training hub in Kent established to develop new data centre engineers while also upskilling existing staff.
The new STEM Learning partnership moves that work further upstream, focusing on awareness of data centre careers before young people enter training or the jobs market.
Even with the STEM Learning partnership, AVK has previously admitted that it would take a whole-industry approach to addressing the skills gap, and it wouldn’t be able to do it alone.
Thankfully, the firm isn’t alone. Other schemes have focused on reaching people earlier. The Digital Futures Programme provides a data centre-focused curriculum for 14-19-year-olds across several university technical colleges, while Equinix expanded its Pathways to Tech programme globally earlier this year. That scheme introduces 14-18-year-olds to the sector through activities including data centre visits and sessions with Equinix employees.
The new STEM Learning partnership takes another approach, using an existing national volunteering network to give professionals from across the industry a route into schools and other educational settings.
It forms part of NDCD’s 2026 #BackToSchool campaign ahead of National Data Centre Day on September 12.
Data centre professionals interested in taking part have been invited to an online session on September 29 at 2pm, which will explain how the STEM Ambassadors programme works and how to sign up. You can find out more details about that by contacting [email protected].
