Manchester-based Apadmi and the Yorkshire Water team are encouraging kids to get into vital industries like technology with a workshop in app design.
Matt Harney, Creative Producer for leading mobile technology company Apadmi, went into Hilltop Academy, Wakefield, recently to chat about life as a digital designer and what makes a career in technology such an exciting prospect.
Apadmi has previously worked closely with schools and universities to push the benefits of training in this arena, which is currently suffering from a huge skills gap. Their aim is to make youngsters aware of the huge potential in the sector, which would lead to an exciting and engaging career path at the same time.
Matt commented: ”It was fantastic to work with the kids – they showed real enthusiasm for the workshop and it was great to see so many creative ideas coming from them.
“We’re really passionate about going into schools and showing children exactly what a career in the technology industry could lead to – it’s not just for people with a flair for maths, but for creatives too. There’s a distinctive skills gap in the UX design industry, and we’re addressing this head-on.”
The initiative forms part of a wider community project by Yorkshire Water, focused on encouraging children into vital industries such as technology, engineering, science and mathematics.
The children were challenged with inventing new ways of attracting people to the Yorkshire Water app. The children were split into brainstorming groups, showing them real-world techniques such as story-boarding and wire-framing once they’d come up with ideas.
Each group then presented their designs back to the class, before everyone voted on their favourite idea. [Last week] the Apadmi team and Yorkshire Water went back to Hilltop to present the winning team with their “graduation” certificates from the Apadmi Academy as top app designers.
Paul Ockwell from Yorkshire Water added: “Thanks to the students for their great ideas – throughout the process, they’ve been very enthusiastic. They recognised the challenges we face such as water conservation or preventing sewer blockages, and built these into their designs”.
