Dozens of pupils in Edinburgh are learning more about digital technology thanks to the latest funding cycle by Digital Xtra, the Scottish charity which inspires young people to become actively involved in the sector.
An initiative run by James Gillespie’s High School is being supported as part of the charity’s tenth funding round, which has seen grants totalling nearly £120,000 awarded to schools and community organisations across 17 local authorities.
The ‘VEX Robotics Competition’ will see pupils design, build, and program a robot, using block coding or python, to compete against other schools from across Scotland in a global competition designed by VEX Robotics based on the VEX V5 robotics platform. Meanwhile, staff will work with their feeder primary schools to organise and deliver a friendly competition using the VEX IQ platform, thus engaging P6 and P7 pupils in computing before they even start high school.
The school was among 27 grant recipients selected from 103 applications after an in-depth evaluation process.
More than 2,000 young people across the country are projected to engage in a variety of meaningful and exciting tech activities throughout the current academic year as a result of the funding, which is aimed at closing the digital skills gap and producing Scotland’s next generation of digital innovators, leaders, and technologists.
Qualifying activities must teach young people skills such as coding, robotics, games design, data science and cyber security. The grants ranged from £1,930 to £5,000, with the criteria being the projects must be extracurricular, delivered in Scotland, focus on young people aged 16 and under and be sustainable beyond the funding period.
The latest round of awards takes the total value of grants handed out since 2016 to £1,189,000, helping 210 extracurricular computing initiatives to engage nearly 60,000 young people across the country. The fund is supported by a range of partners including Baillie Gifford, Skyscanner, Adobe, Cirrus Logic, CGI, as well as the Scottish Government.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “I am proud that the Scottish Government continues to support Digital Xtra in its mission to inspire and equip Scotland’s young people with the digital skills they need to thrive in the modern world. By backing innovative, inclusive extracurricular initiatives, we are helping to close the digital skills gap and ensure that every young person has the opportunity to explore and succeed.
“As technology continues to transform every sector, it is vital that our young people are not only users of technology, but creators and innovators. This is an investment in our people and our future economy.”
Kraig Brown, Digital Xtra’s Partnerships and Development Manager said: “As we begin our tenth grants cycle, we are extremely proud of what we have achieved and look forward to working with this year’s supported initiatives to build on these results. Since our establishment, there have been several skills plans and strategies put forth to help create opportunities for young people to learn critical digital skills. However, the ever-increasing need for these skills across multiple sectors means demand still unfortunately significantly outweighs supply.
“This ongoing skills deficit means engaging and upskilling young people through both formal and informal learning channels is more crucial than ever. As such, Digital Xtra will continue to advocate for digital skills for young people and drive growth of meaningful grassroots computing activities in communities across Scotland.”
