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We worked closely with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Council Institute of Technology researching future content strategies and digital experiences for young people to inform the development of a digital platform with recommendations.
An Institute of Technology (IoT) is an exciting place to gain top-quality training and qualifications in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM)-based subjects.
Located across England, IoTs are a national network of partnerships between local colleges, universities and leading employers. Backed by a £290 million government investment, IoTs deliver the very best in technical education.
The GBSIoT is a powerhouse in Greater Birmingham and Solihull for advanced manufacturing and engineering bringing together a partnership of the leading further education colleges, universities and employers for the region.
The Greater Birmingham and Solihall IoT were awarded funding by GBSLEP to create a digital platform, this will be an accessible and engaging space that takes young people on a STEM journey supporting them to find their pathway into engineering and manufacturing.
The platform is a inspirational one stop’ where young people can learn more about the sector, the opportunities available to them and how to access them.
Critically young people needed to be involved in the development and the design of the platform as its end users must also be its architects.
As such we were commissioned to lead this initial discovery phase gaining insight and intelligence from young people that could be incorporated into the build of the platform.
We conducted both in person user research focus groups with 44 young people, had virtual SME interviews with SME’s on young people digital outreach, and secondary research on approaches and NEET (Not in education, employment and training).
This all gave us insight to analyse and put into a easy to understand format for the content and development phases.
We created research findings in the form of a research report for GBS IoT to use to inform future content and the development of a new digital platform.
The findings clearly articulated what young people want from content and a digital platform with regards to engineering and manufacturing and broader STEM opportunities.
