Sky UK teams up with Digital Xtra Fund to support digital tech activities in West Lothian
Digital Xtra Fund is proud to announce a new partnership with Sky UK to grow and develop even more high-quality extracurricular digital technologies activities for young people in West Lothian.
Last month’s Tech Nation 2018 Report painted a very positive picture for the UK technology industry, with strong signs of development coming from Scotland’s key tech hubs including Livingston in West Lothian. Livingston was highlighted as one area with above-average tech employment, which is key to inspiring more young people to consider a career in digital technology.
As the main private sector employer in West Lothian, Sky UK recognises the important role it plays helping young people succeed in an increasingly digital world, especially as a major technology company itself. They have teamed up with Digital Xtra Fund to grow and develop high-quality computing science activities for young people in the region.
Digital Xtra Fund is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) determined to give every young person in Scotland access to digitally creative activities regardless of their gender, background, or where they live. Backed by businesses, organisations, and individuals with a common will to help young people succeed in a digital world, the Fund delivers grant awards for activities which inspire, engage, and enable young people to be digitally innovative and creative, and gives them a clearer understanding of the future career opportunities digital skills provide.
Digital Xtra Fund was established in 2016 and originally funded through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership. In March 2017, the Fund became an independent charity to enable it to work with a wider range of industry partners. Last year, grant awards were provided for 11 exciting, high-quality initiatives across Scotland including the highly successful F1 in Schools STEM Challenge which saw two all-girl teams from West Lothian qualify for the F1 in Schools World Finals in Singapore.
As a hugely recognisable brand found in millions of homes, Sky knows it has a responsibility to affect real change, whether through its Sky Sports Living for Sport programme or Sky Academy, which works with young people from primary school right through to starting their career to build digital skills and experience. Since opening in 2012, more than 85,000 young people have visited Sky Academy Studios in London and Livingston to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at Sky. In November, it launched Sky Academy Studios at its Italian headquarters in Milan.
Sky is constantly striving to develop a talented, capable, and dedicated workforce committed to creating success for all its stakeholders. The company recognises that investment in the next generation through programmes like Digital Xtra Fund and Sky Academy is crucial to the progression of the technology, media and entertainment industries.
Ronnie Corse, Head of Technology at Sky, said: “Sky Technology Scotland are delighted to be working with Digital Xtra Fund to help engage more young people in digital technologies. Technology is the foundation of Sky’s business and is the driving force behind all our products and services. As one of the biggest employers in West Lothian it is important that we reach out and support the local community. This partnership gives us a great opportunity to build on the existing relationships that we have made with local schools and colleges and to further promote the exciting careers available to young people in Technology & Digital.”
Kraig Brown, Partnerships & Development Manager, Digital Xtra Fund, said: “Sky UK is well recognised as a leader in the UK entertainment and communications industry, an industry that young people are very interested in. This makes partnering with Sky a very exciting opportunity for us and the initiatives we support. We are really looking forward to working with their team to not only engage more young people in tech in West Lothian, but to also show them the wide range of interesting and innovative careers right here in Scotland”
About Sky UK:
Sky UK is part of Europe’s leading entertainment and communications business. With over 22.5 million customers across UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Italy, Sky makes life easier by entertaining and connecting people. Sky is constantly ensuring it is the home of more of the best content from around the world, with sustained market-leading innovation across multiple platforms, delivered by a trusted brand that offers exceptional customer service.
Sky is also committed to using their platform to inspire, create, and act alongside delivering strong and sustained financial performance and returns. Sky seeks to make a wider contribution to the communities in which they live and work through supporting local digital tech, sport, and environmental initiatives. https://www.sky.com/
Angus Young Engineers
This year a group of 20 pupils aged 12-16 from Forfar Community campus will get the chance to take part in a programme of workshops on 3D Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, 3D Scanning, and Digital Manufacturing using 3D printers and 2D laser cutters. Working in groups of four, the young participants will take on role play jobs that reflect the local industry. Supported by AYE’s industry mentors and STEM ambassadors, pupils will gain valuable employability skills as they progress through the 20 week programme – working towards certificates of Digital Manufacturing Confidence, with bronze awarded after 10 weeks, silver after 20 weeks of the programme, and the opportunity to achieve a gold award by acting as mentors and tutors to a local primary school.
The second aspect of The CAD/CAM Café will see the 20 pupils from AYE introduce 230 P6 pupils in 3 urban and 5 rural primary schools to a 3D scanning and printing activity that the Café participants have been developing. Primary school pupils will work in groups to scan their peers’ heads to make 3D portraits, be introduced to 3D CAD, navigate Thingi-verse and 3D print an object to complete a design task to make a drone flight-ready. As with the Secondary school programme, pupils will have the opportunity to roleplay exciting real-life situations from the digital tech sector like designing and testing drones on missions to deliver antidotes to remote locations. Each group will work with a secondary school mentor who is working towards their Gold Digital Manufacturing Confidence certificate, with support from other Senior Young Engineers Leaders and the schools’ primary school transition programmes.
AYE’s CAD/CAM Café is one of 11 initiatives supported by Digital Xtra Fund’s annual grant awards, contributing to our goal to give every young person in Scotland access to a digitally creative activity. These awards are made possible by the valued support of the Fund’s partners, sponsors and funders. To help us continue this work in 2018/19, 
The Renfrewshire Coding Clubs are aimed at S1 and S2 pupils who will soon be thinking about their elective subject choices. The afterschool Coding Clubs deliver activities in a fun and informal way that engages young people, builds their skills, and stimulates their interest in computing science and digital technologies. Senior staff from the College’s computing faculty work with a team of West College Scotland STEM Ambassadors to run the weekly clubs, recruited from the College’s HNC and HND students. This provides the students with a unique opportunity to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for computing science with school pupils, while giving the college students valuable work experience that supports their current studies and their future careers in STEM.
Alongside the Coding Clubs, West College Scotland has also delivered CPD sessions in association with Microsoft Education, Renfrewshire Council, and Paisley YMCA to Renfrewshire primary and secondary school teachers. Focused on increasing the teachers’ confidence and encouraging the use of coding in the classroom, these sessions are vital for the legacy of this project as these teachers will take over managing the current Coding Clubs, as well as initiating new ones, with the assistance of the STEM Ambassadors and senior school pupils. Additional support for the CPD sessions and Coding Clubs comes from 
BT Scotland has supported Digital Xtra Fund since its launch, and its valuable support has allowed the Fund to inspire young people across Scotland with digital technologies. Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said: “BT is right behind Digital Xtra Fund because we believe every young Scot needs to learn digital skills as a basic along with reading and writing. West College Scotland coding clubs engage young people in a fun and informal way and it’s great that more S1 and 2 pupils are getting the chance to learn skills which could potentially lead to a career in digital technology. It’s vital that industry works with educators and the wider public sector to tackle the digital skills shortage and prepare young people for the future world of work.”
Continuing this diverse range of projects is McLaren High School’s STEM@McLaren Festival. This initiative is aimed at S3-S5 pupils at McLaren High School in Stirling, supporting them to design and build creative STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) projects which will be presented to industry experts and the general public at the school’s STEM Festival in Summer 2018. McLaren High School is the only secondary school in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park and serves the largest rural catchment area in mainland Scotland.
By encouraging young people to tackle complex problems by breaking them down into a series of smaller problems, these projects will teach computational thinking and design as a process. Participants are encouraged to work on their projects primarily in their own time but will also receive support and advice from industry experts and academics, giving them first-hand experience of planning and project management, alongside improving their communication skills, networking, resilience, judgement and decision making.
The STEM@McLaren Festival is one of 11 initiatives Digital Xtra Fund is supporting in 2018. This is made possible by our sponsors and funders who contribute to our goal of giving every young person in Scotland access to a digitally creative activity. 
Digital Xtra Fund was originally established in 2016 and funded through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership whose partners included both public sector and industry representatives. In March 2017, Digital Xtra Fund became an independent charity to enable it to work with a wider range of partners. In it’s first year as a charity, the Fund supported 11 fun and engaging digital skills initiatives across Scotland ranging from coding clubs in rural areas to designing apps and technology for social good.
Split into two sessions, the Taster and Industry days’ aim is to introduce young people to digital technology in fun and creative ways: from creating prototypes for 3D printers, to basic games design, filming and editing in the morning; to learning how to code using micro-bit mini-computers in the afternoon in #generationcode – linking coding to real-world issues, with activity themed around Science and Technology, Health and Wellbeing, Personal and Global Citizenship and Creative Arts.
Cath Mitchell, Volunteers Executive and Sean Dimeo, Fundraising Administrator said, “Without support from Digital Xtra Fund, this project would not have been possible. Their backing has allowed us to recruit and further train our talented young mentors, as well as attract digital technology entrepreneurs to deliver stimulating activity sessions. Furthermore, with their support, we have been able to secure a supply of micro:bits for use after the project’s conclusion. This will allow young people to continue to hone their coding skills at their own pace and pass on this knowledge to peers. Thank you to Digital Xtra Fund for their support”
Digital Xtra Fund was originally established in 2016 and funded through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership. In March 2017, Digital Xtra Fund was spun out as an independent charity to enable it to work with a wider range of industry partners, with BT Scotland signing up to support the Fund from the outset. Last year, the Fund awarded grant awards for 11 exciting, high-quality initiatives across Scotland ranging from robotic competitions to designing model Formula 1 cars.
Robo Constructors is a fun, fast-moving workshop where pupils become mini-robot engineers, exploring open ended challenges to create their own novel, wacky and useful robots! Using 
Joan Davidson, Head of Education at Edinburgh International Science Festival, spoke about how Digital Xtra Fund is helping Generation Science to engage and inspire more young people and their teachers, “Generation Science is all about supporting the provision of science education in Scottish primary schools. We do this with a team of incredibly enthusiastic science communicators whose energy and passion for delivering engaging STEM activities inspires young learners and brings technology to life in the classroom. Working with organisations such as Digital Xtra Fund enables us to reach young people across Scotland wherever they may be. With the adoption of digital as part of the definition of STEM in the STEM education and training strategy for Scotland, it is vital that our young learners and their teachers have access to inspiring and engaging activities that not only cut across the curriculum but provide bridges to life outside the classroom and the wider world of work. There are many varied opportunities for our young people to engage and develop their digital skills and we will continue to support the development of this element of young people’s learning.”
Generation Science is one of 11 initiatives Digital Xtra Fund is supporting in 2018, which will introduce over 3,200 young people to high-level computing skills. This is made possible by our sponsors and funders who contribute to our goal of giving every young person in Scotland access to a digitally creative activity. 
Inspiring young people into STEM using robotics, coding, and teamwork is the focus of the VEX Robotics Competition, an extracurricular programme where student teams design, build, and code robots to compete in an exciting global engineering challenge set annually by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation based in Greenville, Texas. The modular robot kits and variable challenges also promote skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and computational thinking while teaching students about the design process.
The study of robotics links to all facets of STEM and New College Lanarkshire have developed an exciting programme that encourages young people to learn through exploration via hands-on, problem-based learning experiences. This year, 38 young people aged 12-16 from Lanarkshire have taken on the challenge of becoming robot designers adopting the roles of computer programmers, CAD designers, engineers, and robot pilots.
These young robot-engineers recently got a chance to show off their creations and celebrate their new digital skills at the VEX Robotics Scottish Regional Finals on 2 February at the New College Lanarkshire Motherwell Campus. Teams competed in 
Koala-T were also winner of the Regional Design Award, judged this year by Digital Xtra Fund. The Design Award is presented to the team that best demonstrates an organised and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organisation. During the robot’s design process teams must maintain an Engineering Notebook, documenting the progression of their robot from initial idea through to final testing. This helps the teams better understand the engineering design process while also practicing a variety of real life skills that will benefit in their academic and professional futures. As well as competing in the UK National Championships, this win also gives Koala-T opportunity to compete for the Design Award at the National level too!
Encouraging more young women to engage in STEM and computing science is a key aim of this initiative overall. Evidence of New College Lanarkshire’s success is apparent simply by the number of young women taking part, but it is exemplified by Power of 5 – the first all-female team from Airdrie Academy who also reached the UK Finals last year and were runner-up for the Design Award at this year’s Regional finals with their robot ‘KJ’. The team named their robot KJ after the iconic NASA mathematician, Katherine Johnson, whose computations have influenced every major space program from the Mercury missions through to the Space Shuttle, and who was the focus of 2017 film 
Unfortunately, disruption across UK train services caused by the “Beast from the East” winter storm has meant Koala-T and Jamie and the Generics are unable to attend the UK National Championships later this week in Telford. Both teams are understandably disappointed as they would have loved to attend. However, Digital Xtra Fund would still like to congratulate both teams on a job well done at the Scotland event and best of luck in the future. You can follow