Mentoring Local Schoolchildren

The School will initiate projects and guide children through skills competitions, and Dr Klepikova's welcoming speech dealt with educational structure and current issues in the education system. She explained that the process of engaging in projects itself can overcome some of these issues, and that engagement with business and higher education can really help to give the children a sense of purpose, as well as the practical skills necessary in the workplace. Businesses took centre-stage on the first day, reviewing the successes they had achieved with schoolchildren in the previous session. The children were helped to identify problems, ask appropriate questions of the assembled experts, and to correctly analyse given situations. The participants will be expected to take an active role, and present the results of their projects at the conclusion of the School. The School receives Federal funding, and through projects of this type, the government hopes to generate a culture of integrated design and development from inception to commercial realisation.