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young innovation

What inspires YOU?

Young Innovation - Innovative Business in Action

Young Innovation was an education-business initiative which ran during the school year of September 2004 to July 2005. Its aim was to encourage original thinking and sustainable development in business, harness students' ideas to help local companies and emphasise the need for visionary sustainability solutions.

Learning from each other

10 lively partnerships were created between local schools and businesses across Bristol, Bath and Wiltshire and more than 1,700 students aged between 12 and 15 attended active-learning workshops about sustainability and sustainable business. These workshops focused how businesses operate, sustainable development, waste and recycling, use of land, sustainable transport, food and farming and sustainable construction.

Workplace visits

Just under 200 students then visited their business partners. They gained first hand experience of how the business operated and acted as 'consultants', coming up with innovative ways to help the businesses resolve issues around sustainability. Click here for details of each school-business project.

Celebration

A Young Innovation Conference and Award Ceremony was held in Bath on 6 July 2005 where students presented their ideas to a wide audience. The students hope that the participating businesses will be encouraged to make use of these budding ideas to help them become more sustainable, from encouraging recycling to promoting sustainable transport.

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to all who took part in this very successful project. The support from teachers at the participating schools and enthusiasm of our business partners was more than matched by the overwhelming commitment and excitement that was generated about the project by the students themselves.

SEE THE SECOND STAGE

NB: To see a larger version of the photos in this section, simply click on them.

Picture credit: Martin Chainey, RDA; & Denise Cheung Parker, Envolve