2023 Quality Engineering Academy: Bootcamp Blog

By Joanne Greenhalgh - Roq Academy Consultant

Joanne Greenhalgh, Roq Academy Consultant joined us after being referred to our Quality Engineering Academy apprenticeship by her employment advisor at Preston Job Centre. Joanne was a stay-at-home mum who has recently completed an Open University degree in Computing, and she was keen to explore a new career.   

The initial 12-week bootcamp is now complete and in this blog, Joanne gives us the highlights of the cohort’s experiences, from meetups and bowling, to canoeing and hotpots – with plenty of learning along the way. 

Week 1 – W/C 16/01/23 

As the company’s first-ever intake of apprentices, the pressure was on. This pressure was immediately lifted in our first official week as Roq employees, as members of staff from all departments provided us an insight into their field and what it’s like to work at Roq. Halfway through the week we got to experience the office meetup, getting to chat with colleagues across the company and we also really enjoyed the hotpot for lunch. 

After more introductory sessions and being introduced to our trainers for the start of our bootcamp, we finished the week with food and some rounds of bowling ready for the hard work to really begin in week 2. 

Week 2 – W/C 23/01/23 

We started our journey to becoming testers with a week of teaching us the fundamentals of testing. On day two we got to get hands-on and do some testing, which was great. We were also tasked with a group activity to create a travel application to help us apply the techniques that we were going to learn over the next few weeks.  

Week 3 – W/C 30/01/23 

This week consisted of learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript alongside being introduced to software development lifecycles.  For many of us this was our first experience of coding, but by the end of the week we had created our own web pages and started getting to grips with loops. We also learnt about data types and test data. 

Week 4 – W/C 06/02/23 

We saw the return of the travel apps this week as we started writing user stories and test cases alongside learning about the software testing life cycle and different approaches to testing. We were also introduced to GIT version control and defect management and reporting. Individually, we created Node.js console applications and in our groups, we designed, developed and tested console applications, rotating our applications so that we got to experience testing applications developed by someone else. 

Week 5 – W/C 13/02/23 

The week started with us being introduced to testing websites using Selenium Webdriver which led to us finding some interesting issues on some websites! Throughout the week we built on this task and we finished the week working on a project to create and test our own website using Cucumber. On the theory side, we continued developing our knowledge of test processes and we also started using project management tools. 

Week 6 – W/C 20/02/23 

It was time to learn a new programming language, as we were introduced to Java and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles. This wasn’t as scary as we thought it was going to be and we enjoyed building up on knowledge of programming. In groups, we got to test each other’s Java applications using JUnit. It was also time for the next office meetup, and it was great to be able to see our colleagues again and catch them up on what we had been learning. 

Week 7 – W/C 27/02/23 

This week we continued building on our Java knowledge and we also started using SQL databases. We learnt test design techniques and got to apply them in individual and group activities. We also learnt about branching in GIT and we finished the week learning about estimation techniques and an activity of planning poker, which was really interesting. 

Week 8 – W/C 06/03/23 

Another week, another new language. This week it was C# but we were able to use what we had learnt previously to help us with this. Our theory this week included test planning and scheduling, and in groups we worked through completing a test plan which was an activity that we knew would be useful as our final showcase project came closer. 

Week 9 – W/C 13/03/23 

We had a change of scenery this week as we met up with our trainers at their office in Manchester for two days for the introduction to our final project. But the learning didn’t stop as we were introduced to graphical databases and API testing whilst we were starting to understand more about the product we would be testing. 

Week 10 – W/C 20/03/23 

This week we really got started with our project and within our groups we started planning and testing. It was great to be able to put together everything that we had learnt over the past few weeks and really get stuck in to testing the software. 

Week 11 – W/C 27/03/23 

As testing came to end, it was time to start putting together our presentations for the final showcase on the Friday. The three groups presented to not just each other, but to other Roq employees and it was interesting to see how each group had approached the challenge. We got some good feedback from our colleagues which will be useful going forward. 

Week 12 – W/C 03/04/23 

Our first week out of bootcamp was spent being introduced to the Roq framework ‘Kittens’ and learning how to use that. We also spent some time on other sessions including looking back on our time so far in the Academy. 

Week 13 – W/C 10/04/23 

It was time for our final week in the Academy. We learnt which projects we would be assigned to and ended the week canoeing on Lake Windermere with some of our other Roq colleagues which was a lot of fun. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed our experience as apprentices with the Roq Academy and have gained a great deal of skills and knowledge which we can’t wait to put into practice as we continue our testing journey. 

A big thank you to Joanne for sharing her experience with us – great to have all of you in the team! 

Learn more about our Roq Quality Engineering Academy and apply for the next Academy intake, or get in touch with Shaheen.gul@roq.co.uk