One of the most significant aspects of our upcoming event, #INSPIRANATION at The Sunday Times Festival of Education is the support we've had from the business community and companies like Barclays, Dell, Google, BT, Cass Art and National Grid.
We're particularly looking forward to a short talk from Dame Julia Cleverdon, Vice President of Business in the Community.
It's all about connections
Business in the Community is Prince Charles’ Responsible Business Network. Its members work together to tackle a wide range of issues that are essential to building a fairer society and a more sustainable future.
One of STEAM Co.'s early supporters, National Grid were Business in the Community's Responsible Business of the Year, when we saw their CEO Steve Holliday mention STEAM in his speech at the CBI Education conference in 2014.
Then we met the Vice President and fonder of BITC, Dame Julia Cleverdon at a Mayor of London Education conference and saw this inspiring talk 'Companies and communities in tough times' that she gave at Warwick University.
“One of the big challenges society faces is ‘connecting the unconnected’ so more people can benefit from the wealth of expertise, experience and enthusiasm in our communities", said Dame Julia.
"STEAM Co. are building bridges between art, academia and business to education.
This is to everyone’s benefit - young people as well as the community around them. “
Digital Eagles
A fantastic example of business collaboration in the community is the work that Barclays are doing with their Digital Eagles initiative.
To help its customers master the internet, Barclays have more than 12,000 Digital Eagles ready to help. As part of this initiative, monthly 2-hour coding sessions are run for children aged 7 to 17 in selected branches.
It’s a really fun way to learn the basics and develop digital skills for the future. Younger children can get coding with Barclays Code Playground.Barclays Digital Eagles have teamed up with Kano and their ‘computer kids can make’ to run the Coder Corner for STEAM Co. at #INSPIRANATION.
See the Digital Eagles in action and a snippet of Dame Cleverdon's talk in the film below.