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Northampton School for Boys

Secondary Education · 5-day training programme, July 2026

From Hand-Written Code to Directed AI Delivery

A five-day, governance-first AI training programme for a Year 12 student, combining agent-directed software testing with ethical AI training, run entirely on mock data.

  • 15 out of 15 on the end-of-programme assessment
  • Three professional lenses in one week: DPO, QA Lead, Test Engineer
  • Zero real client records used at any point across the programme
15/15
assessment score
5 days
fully in person
0
real records used
Shayaan Ali during his AI Foundations training week with Gen3Block

AI Foundations Week

Shayaan Ali · Year 12 · July 2026

The situation

The starting point

Shayaan Ali, a Year 12 student at Northampton School for Boys, could already code by hand in Python, C# and PHP. What he had not done was work alongside an AI coding agent: directing it, questioning its output, and verifying its work rather than either avoiding AI or trusting it blindly. His family wanted the week to go beyond shadowing and leave him with a transferable skill that reflects how software is actually built today. The brief was equally clear about limits: no client work, no confidential systems, and no real business data.

  • Confident hand-coding in Python, C# and PHP, but no experience directing or reviewing an AI coding agent
  • Work experience placements often default to shadowing, leaving no assessable skill behind at the end of the week
  • AI is usually taught as prompting technique, with ethics, governance and verification treated as separate subjects
  • A programme for a named student under 18 demands safeguarding-first design from the first hour, not a disclaimer at the end

What was delivered

How the Week Was Built

A five-day structure built on a single principle: an AI agent can plan, write, run and revise code on its own, so the professional skill worth teaching is reviewing, directing and verifying what it produces.

  1. Ethics Before Code

    The DIODE framework (Define, Issues, Options, Decision, Explanations), drawn from the BCS Foundation Certificate in the Ethical Build of AI, applied to a real assessment exercise from the perspective of a Data Protection Officer reporting to the ICO.

  2. A Real Engineering Environment

    A properly configured Python environment and Git version control from day one, plus a manual data-quality investigation carried out with no AI assistance at all. The baseline skill was earned before the agent was introduced.

  3. Directing the Agent

    Shayaan directed an AI coding agent to write a full pytest suite against a real codebase, then reviewed the output critically rather than accepting it. The deliverable was a working, independently reviewed test suite, not a transcript of prompts.

  4. Mock Data by Design

    Every practical exercise ran on invented CRM and ERP data. No client systems, no confidential records, and nothing belonging to a real business at any point during the five days.

The outcome

The Outcome

A week that ended with something assessable: reviewed code, a written record of the student's own reasoning, and a credential anyone can verify.

  • 15 out of 15 on a 15-question end-of-programme assessment, including written reflections in his own words
  • A working pytest suite produced by directing an AI agent and reviewed line by line
  • A recorded closing presentation delivered at the end of the programme
  • A verifiable Gen3Block AI Foundations digital badge, shareable on LinkedIn
  • Thanked in writing by the Northampton School for Boys careers team at the close of the week
  • Zero real client records touched at any point across the five days
  • Commissioned and funded by the family as structured training, not a shadowing placement, under written parental consent and safeguarding-first design

How it was structured

Three Professional Lenses in Five Days

  1. Governance

    Data Protection Officer

    Assessed an AI use case the way a DPO reporting to the ICO would: what data is involved, who carries the risk, what the realistic options are, and which decision can still be defended months later.

  2. Quality

    QA Lead

    Set the standard the work would be judged against before any code existed: what the system had to do, what it must never do, and what would count as evidence of either.

  3. Engineering

    Software Test Engineer

    Directed the AI agent to build the test suite, then reviewed, challenged and corrected its output until the tests genuinely proved what they claimed to prove.

Gen3Block Certified AI Foundations digital badge, Beginner levelVerify badge

Evidence

Verify It Yourself

Gen3Block Certified: AI Foundations. Issued to Shayaan Ali on completion of the programme. Verifiable and shareable on LinkedIn.

The programme behind this case study

Take the same programme

AI Foundations Week is the five-day programme Shayaan completed. Ethics and governance first, then directing and verifying an AI coding agent, all on mock data. Small cohorts, an end-of-week assessment, and a verifiable digital badge.

Explore AI Foundations Week

What people said

In Their Own Words

“Letting an AI agent run unsupervised means the human is not in control of the task. Blindly trusting AI is like trusting a student who is confident in their answer but has not checked the facts. It is essential to direct and verify the agent so the human stays in charge.”
Shayaan Ali, Year 12 student, Northampton School for BoysFrom his end-of-programme assessment
“Super proud of my son Shayaan for completing his AI Foundations Week with Gen3Block during his Year 12 work experience. Instead of spending the week just learning how to code, he learnt something even more valuable: how to direct an AI coding agent, how to verify its work because AI can be confidently wrong, and why ethical AI matters just as much as clever AI. A future where AI writes the code and humans provide the judgement, critical thinking and accountability. That is a skill I think will be invaluable for the next generation.”
Ashish Kumar, CEO & Director, Web AllianceShared publicly on LinkedIn
“Thank you for welcoming Shayaan into your organisation, for making them feel so welcome and for giving them an insight into the real world of work. Students will be returning to us in September with their completed work experience reflection journals and we cannot wait to hear what they have learnt. A final huge thank you for hosting our student this week. We, and they, are so very grateful.”
Careers Team, Northampton School for BoysFrom the school's end-of-week letter
“Shayaan, you didn't just learn to use AI. You learned to question it and protect what matters, and that is the standard Gen3Block stands for. Carry that forward: AI can write the code, but you decide what is right, and whose data deserves care.”
Charles Nwankpa, Gen3BlockClosing note to the student
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