STEM Centre Supports Young Innovators and Investors of Tomorrow
The South West College STEM Centre is delighted to announce the second year of two successful programmes, which were launched last year – the Young Innovators’ programme and the Young Investors’ programme.
Firstly the Young Innovator’s programme, hosted in association with the STEM Centre, Dungannon and Cookstown Business Education Partnership and the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council, is an initiative designed to promote innovation, invention and enterprise among local school pupils.
The second programme is the Young Investor’s programme, hosted in association with the STEM Centre and the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council, which aims to promote entrepreneurial skills among young adults in the South West region.
The Young Innovator’s programme, open to school pupils aged 14–21 years within the Cookstown and Dungannon area, aims to challenge students to generate unique and inspiring ideas for a new product or service within the following STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) categories: Engineering, Food Science/Technology, ICT/Software, Construction and Green Energy.
Successful candidates from the programme will receive mentoring from the South West College team of STEM experts to help develop their project idea further and on completion of the programme students’ work will be acknowledged at an upcoming awards exhibition.
The Young Investor’s programme is open to secondary schools in the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council area and is designed to introduce young people aged 16-21 years to the world of international stocks, bonds, shares and traded services through an exciting and interactive series of workshops.
The emphasis of the programme will focus on giving students a sense of how the world of stocks and shares impacts on daily life, and to make their involvement more real-to-life, students will have the opportunity to work in teams to invest £100,000 in virtual portfolios through the prestigious “IFS Student Investor Challenge”. Through this challenge students will compete with teams across the UK for a host of prizes, including an all-expenses paid educational trip to New York.
Speaking about the launch of these exciting programmes, Shirley Lamont, STEM Centre Co-ordinator at South West College said;
“These programmes are a great way to engage young people with extra-curricular activities and some students also choose to use these initiatives to work towards a school project. Both the Young Innovator’s and the Young Investor’s programmes are designed to increase each student’s confidence and to inspire and excite them to study STEM related subjects further in life”.
For further information about these programmes please contact: Shirley Lamont Tel: 028 8772 0644 or Email: shirley.lamont@swc.ac.uk www.stemcentreni.com
