Incremental Group enters partnership with Digital Xtra Fund to help nurture Scotland’s young digital talent
Incremental Group funding and project delivery support will provide young people aged 16 and under with opportunities to learn computer and digital skills, widening the provision of extracurricular digital activities across Scotland.
Digital Xtra Fund is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) that forms a key strand of a nationwide drive to develop the digital talent of all young people across Scotland. The Fund provides grant awards to support organisations that help young people develop computer and digital making skills through high-quality extracurricular activities.
Digital Xtra Fund was originally established in 2016 and funded through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership whose partners included Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Funding Council, Education Scotland, ScotlandIS, and industry representatives. In March 2017, Digital Xtra Fund was spun out as an independent charity to enable it to work more closely with industry and address the digital skills gap. In November, the Fund awarded a total of £50,000 to 11 exciting and engaging initiatives across Scotland. Formula 1, 3D printed drones, lighthouses, and coding for social good were just some of the activities to receive support.
The Fund is now working with organisations, including Incremental Group, who also understand the importance of teaching young people to understand and create with technology to develop the 2018 grant awards programme. Public resources in many parts of Scotland are being stretched, so a collaborative effort within the private sector is key to engaging more young people in digital technologies.
Neil Logan, CEO, Incremental Group said “Digital skills are crucial to powering the Scottish Economy but unfortunately not enough of our young people are getting those skills. Digital Xtra Fund is one way of helping get more children involved with, and excited by extracurricular, tech activity – from robotics to coding. Importantly, it targets the biggest STEM drop out group – those aged 12 to 16. We are looking forward to being paired with an interesting project that will inspire Scotland’s next generation of Technologists.”
Kraig Brown, Partnerships & Development Manager, Digital Xtra Fund said “Incremental Group’s contribution will greatly help with the delivery of the 2018 Grant Awards cycle. The funding from Incremental Group will ensure more young people across Scotland have the opportunity to take part in high-quality coding and digital making activities. We will work closely with the Incremental Group team as part of their new CSR strategy to help inspire the next generation of coders and digital makers.”
About Incremental Group
Incremental Group is a digital technology company that works with the government and industry to deliver the digital enterprise, step by step. It provides Consultancy, Applications, Intelligence, Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics services. These services are delivered by a growing team of over 60 digital specialists in Inverurie and in Glasgow. Customers include Total, Aggreko and The Scottish Government. www.incrementalgroup.co.uk
Little Lighthouse is a creative interdisciplinary programme which encourages children to combine computing science with various other science and technology concepts such electricity, design, light and sound using lighthouses as context. During the 2016/17 pilot year, YESC received support as part of Digital Xtra Fund’s second funding round to assist with the programme’s roll-out in 40 schools across Perth & Kinross, Scottish Borders, Western Isles, and Highlands. Based on the success of this initial cohort, further support was secured from Education Scotland to extend the programme across all 120 Highland primary schools and funding from the current Digital Xtra Fund grant awards will see Little Lighthouse expanded again into Argyll & Bute and Moray. This expansion will include teacher CPD courses as well as free resource kits for 18 schools in order to deliver the programme. As part of Digital Xtra Fund’s support, YESC is targeting schools that do not currently offer extracurricular computing science related activities, building the confidence and knowledge of teachers in these schools to deliver digital activities.
In total, 360 P2-P4 pupils in Argyll & Bute and Moray will take part in the Little Lighthouse programme learning digital concepts using Bee-Bots, CodeBugs, and Scratch. Pupils will complete eight exciting lighthouse themed modules, each building on concepts learned in the previous module. From constructing a working model lighthouse in ‘High Height’ to learning about communicating over long distances in ‘Light Delights’, by placing computing science and creativity in a real-world context alongside fun, hands-on activities, the Little Lighthouse programme helps to instil a positive attitude to digital technologies at a young age, increasing the likelihood of young people going on to choose computing science subjects at school.
Rebecca MacLennan, Programme Director at Young Engineers & Science Clubs Scotland, SCDI said, “Little Lighthouse is one of a range of innovative STEM projects available to schools across Scotland through SCDI’s YESC programme, supported by many partners including Digital Xtra Fund and BT Scotland. We are delighted to have support from Digital Xtra Fund to continue to grow the Little Lighthouse programme across Scotland by engaging another two local authorities. Our CPD courses have been very well received by teachers who are now enthused to use the lighthouse context to help pupils develop valuable skills including computational thinking and inspire the future workforce!”