Everton in the Community Digital Skills Lab Case Study

A DIGITAL SKILLS LAB FOR MERSEYSIDE FOR EVERTON IN THE COMMUNITY

"We created a Digital Skills Lab to bring young people, who would never have dreamed to take up STEAM subjects, to get them inspired"

Sue Gregory

CEO Everton in the Community

A DIGITAL SKILLS LAB FOR MERSEYSIDE FOR EVERTON IN THE COMMUNITY

"We created a Digital Skills Lab to bring young people, who would never have dreamed to take up STEAM subjects, to get them inspired"

Sue Gregory

CEO Everton in the Community

Current Impact So Far...

Over 1,200 students inspired
65+ schools have taken part
40+ staff trained in STEAM

Inspiring a whole community

Everton in the Community is one of the UK's top sporting charities. The charity's work is vast and includes: providing routes into education, training & employment and steering young people towards a brighter future.

E-STEAM is an initiative by Everton in the Community that seeks to engage and inspire communities, young, and old in the amazing world of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. It has been developed in response to the changing landscape of an industry that is moving towards an increased digital and technological presence and with the gap between the skills young people learn and the skills people need becoming more obvious.

EITC approached CreativeHUT as a partner to help deliver the lab as part of the E-STEAM project, funded by a group of philanthropists known as the First STEAM Squad.

Take our 3D Digital Skills Lab Walkthrough

Why a Learning Space?

The launch follows research undertaken by STEM Learning, which shows 89% of STEM businesses have found it difficult to recruit staff with the required skills, leading to a shortfall of over 173,000 workers – this equates to an average of 10 unfilled roles per business.

Giving skills-development a home

The lab now provides an inspiring and creative environment to house the E-STEAM programme. It gives access to cutting-edge STEAM resources, including robotics, VR, drones, 3D printers and laser cutters. The EITC staff have been trained to deliver sessions for local schools and adult learners and are facilitating the development of skills needed for exciting careers.

As the delivery partner, CreativeHUT worked closely with the EITC team to conceptualise, plan and install the learning centre. Including space design, wall graphics, furniture and resource selection.

Bringing a state-of-the-art learning space to life

Meet - We met the EITC Team to understand their goals for engaging the schools they work with in STEAM education to help bridge the skills gap in the UK.

Consultation - The EITC team were very keen to create a physical home for learning via some form of 'wow-factor' skills lab, which enables them to bring together schools, adults, businesses and the whole community.

Concepts - Once the vision was clear, we developed several different options which they could consider, including the provision of visual concepts for a Digital Skills Lab that could be created in a number of different locations and on different scales. These encompassed suitable resources, training, furniture and graphic designs to create a full solution to meet their aims.

Proposal - Following feedback on the concepts, the most suitable solution was agreed upon and was then progressed into a fully detailed proposal to map out all the finer details of all aspects of the solution.

Design - CreativeHUT liaised with the architect and building contractor teams to help advise on the functionality and the look & feel of the space, which involved construction work and bespoke project/storage furniture for 3 x main classroom spaces. CreativeHUT also led the design, production and installation of graphical artwork for all wall spaces, helping to bring to life the perfect environment for students and communities to learn & develop within.

Revise - This was a very iterative process. The EITC team were provided with initial design concepts on which they could feedback, to be amended and developed further, depending on their preferences for the design.

Install - Once all parties were in agreement, the CreativeHUT Team were onsite to oversee the installation of all wall graphics, and support the architect and building contractor teams, in line with the deadlines scheduled for everything to be ready for the launch.

Launch - CreativeHUT were delighted to be involved in the full official launch of the ‘Digital Skills Lab’ which involved Primary & Secondary students using the resources and space for the very first time, and enabled the backers of the project to see the impact of the solution first-hand.

Training - The EITC staff are involved in regular training to enable them to utilise all of the resources effectively and confidently with the end users, and will be continued to be supported into the future through in-person training from the CreativeHUT ‘STEAM Team’ and our E-Learning platform.

Continued Support - We ensure that all our partners are forever supported in delivering what they need and we love building long-lasting relationships which continue to have a positive impact on student learning long into the future.

It's already a game-changer...

So far, the programme has engaged more than 1,200 students from 63 different schools across Merseyside. This number is set to grow significantly now the lab is open to run sessions regularly. There was no time wasted as they celebrated 'International Day of Women and Girls in Science' with a day of action to tackle a major gender gap in the industry.

With major companies and industry professionals in attendance, John Whitfield, the Digital Training Business Partner at AstraZeneca said “AstraZeneca are immensely proud to be partnering with Everton in the Community and are excited to be supporting the ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’ event at Goodison Park. We are looking forward to collaborating on further events in 2023, and helping to ensure we are supporting STEM in the heart of our community.” showing that the impact and purpose of the lab has a very bright future ahead.

“Today’s unveiling was the perfect opportunity for us all to come together and witness first-hand the importance of creating areas such as this for children where they can learn, play and develop new skills. This is especially important in areas of economic disadvantage, and we wanted to deliver something which will leave a legacy in the community. "

Jimmy Worrall

Founder of Leaders in Sport & part of the First Steam Squad

“We are incredibly honoured to support Everton in the Community and its E-STEAM Programme. Seeing the passion from the charity, along with the support from the industry and the First Steam Squad, has been a humbling experience for CreativeHUT and our partners"

Gareth Boldsworth

Founder of CreativeHUT

Speak to an expert today

If you are interested in creating a Learning Space speak to a member of our STEAM team today. Our Learning Space experts are on hand to answer any questions you may have and will work with you to design inspiring classrooms of the future.

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Current Impact So Far...