One place, one message: a whole gathering of young people whose interests are sparked in hope of a more sustainable future.
Skills for tomorrow held at the University of Worcester acted as the first step for some, and the next step for many young KS3 students.
As schools were brought together they collaboratively and interactively learnt more about the environment; how to make Worcester their city more sustainable, and even speak to green company’s and learn about green jobs that they themselves could one day be part of. These are the children of today and the people of tomorrow, making the cause of skills for tomorrow extremely prominent and worthwhile!
This event was supported by many people including local businesses and charities. This included Worcester Roots Foundation with eco tool kits for school, Nissan’s new fully electric car: Nissan LEAF, CVQO an education charity with a military ethos, Speller Metcalfe, and a national building company based locally and close to my own heart: Energize Worcester. Even Worcester’s MP Robin Walker gave an inspirational talk. He was incredibly and genuinely enthusiastic and passionate about the cause of the event, which was great to witness first hand!
The children took part in three workshops: Responsible tourism, sustainable food and convincing consumers. They all learnt so much, many students chatted openly to me about what they had learnt already expressing their skills for tomorrow it was enlightening!!
Workshops with a theme such as food, and designing your own sustainable food product caught the attention of many. They decided to have packaging that was biodegradable, sugar would be grown in England, and not imported from neighbouring countries all in the aim of reducing our own carbon footprint! Many chose to design their own fudge, with comic names such as fudgelicious. In the exhibitor hall there was even a stall: Ruby’s Kitchen which had home made fudge, how great! This linked, as they could one day, similar to Ruby put their entrepreneur skills to practice! The young ones loved this, they even brought me a piece of fudge over! How sweet! Mind the pun!…
Fudge… sweet… get it?
Oh well,
Anyway… The children’s imagination ran wild at skills for tomorrow, their ideas for the future, their future boggling at the seams. They were also keen to take pictures at the selfie station. #SfT
As well as their teachers…
Don’t tell anyone but I even took one (or a few) with some of the susthingsout team and helpers!
In the exhibitor hall, centre to the event, was a plain banner and pens (initially). Two indications that reveal that they are free to draw anything related to sustainability. Everyone drew freely. There were some amazing artistic skills, and the thought behind each carefully hand drawn picture this truly revealed their understanding of what they knew and what they learnt throughout the day. Children needn’t be tested on their knowledge, this revealed the have a significant understanding, just give them a pen and paper! The banner was filled completely!
Many enjoyed the event, learning a lot about the future, however already knowing so much. I was so surprised at the facts they told me, I learnt some myself. They were all incredibly intelligent, and this will grow as they learn the skills for tomorrow that will help step towards a more sustainable future!
One step at a time! Lets hope for a more educational and sustainable future in order to:
change today and protect tomorrow