In Term Two, the BOP team had the pleasure of heading over to Perth, Western Australia to work with 100 Year 10 students as part of an innovative work experience program delivered by Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) Claremont.
Over the course of one action-packed week, Year 10 students at MLC develop their 21st-century skills as they develop innovative solutions to challenges pitched by leading Australian organisations. Exercising their skills in design thinking, students first spent time understanding the challenge and the client, before then putting their brains to work to develop a solution to the challenge pitched to them.
After three big days of working, students delivered a 3-5 minute pitch back to the client, outlining their initiative and how it would not only solve the challenge, but benefit the target users at the same time.
Challenges for the program included:
The Future Of Transport: What might the future of transport look like in Perth by 2050, and how can we safely and effectively roll out innovative transport options over the next 30 years?
Long Haul Flying: How can we make flying more comfortable and enjoyable for passengers onboard a +21 hour non-stop flight from Perth to New York City?
Zero Waste Mining: How can we design a mine that will leave the local community and the local environment in a better place after operations finish?
Ethical Innovations: How can we ensure all technologies developed in Australia have been created with the community and ethical considerations in mind?
Throughout the week, students heard from industry leaders from companies such as Rio Tinto, CSIRO and RAC, as well as innovation experts from the University Of Western Australia and Curtin University.
After delivering their 3-5 minute pitches, students then spent half a day completing a young professionals workshop where they learnt how to showcase their skills to potential employers, and how to build their personal brands as young professionals in their chosen field.
Upon completion of the program, each student then received feedback on their pitch videos, as well as a micro-credential verifying the skills they had developed.
To find out more about our Career Innovators Programme and how you could organise something like this for your school, check out our School Incursions Page to see the details. If you want to see how we could design something like this for your school community, Contact Us to chat further.