Young Peoples’ Conversations at the Campus – the Skills team goes ‘Fourth’
Loch Leven Community Campus in Perth and Kinross was the 
location of the fourth Conversation Day event. 74 Primary children from 6 schools from P4 to P6 joined staff from Education Scotland and a partner organisations in very varied day of activities around skills and developing the young workforce themes.
Building on the format of our previous primary conversation day, children moved around 9 stations each with a different focus and role in promoting conversation around skills and developing the young workforce issues. Popular activities included Generations Science’s Lego Mindstorms, where the children could practise their programming skills with links made to computer aided manufacturing and robotics and the Royal Highland Education Trust’s full size replica cow “Daisy” who provided a focus for conversation around sustainability and 21st century farming .
There was a chance to experience Skills Development Scotland’s Magic Mirror, build mechanical fingers, explore the science behind a steam powered boat and even make electricity from an apple. Dundee and Angus college challenged our perceptions around childcare and Young Enterprise Scotland helped open up think about “What I can be?”. Evidence of the success was gathered in more than one way… including the Dundee Science centre’s STEM ambassadors who helped us dust for prints CSI style.
When asked about the impact of the event children remarked it had been fun, they liked the activities and it gave them ideas about doing different jobs. Many commented about feeding back to their schools, talking to parents and holding similar events.
Whilst the children engaged in the day’s activities, Perth and Kinross practitioners and some parents were working hard too, discussing the career education standards and issues around developing the young workforce in schools with Quality Improvement Officer John Devine and Fiona MacKay from Perth and Kinross council.
Remarks from this group included: The event could be replicated with our own local partners on a cluster basis; There is significant potential for us to link with the many local businesses we have in our locality; and working with parents could support schools to develop links with employers through parental contacts.
Partners for this event included, Skills Development Scotland, Young Enterprise Scotland, Generation Science, Young Engineer from The Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI), Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET), STEM ambassadors from the Dundee Science centre, Dundee and Angus College. Our thanks to all of them for the fantastic opportunities that they provided to the children.
Our thank also extend to the staff at the Community Campus for their warm welcome and providing a great facility for Partners and Children on the day.
Next event: 3 September, Elgin Town Hall, Moray; Focus: Equalities and Inclusion
