The Ideator
Following the establishment of Digital Innovators West Midlands Community Interest Company, we are launching The Ideator!
The Ideator is a collaborative work environment based on the Innovation Birmingham Campus, supported by Bruntwood SciTech and Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, which will be launched through a series of pilot workshops across January and February 2022.
These workshops which will bring together businesses, community organisations, educators, and young people to tackle a variety of industry challenges and kickstart The Ideator.
What is it?
The Ideator is a unique collaborative environment based in the heart of Birmingham’s Knowledge Quarter on the Innovation Birmingham Campus.
In this space, we aim to facilitate our “learning by doing” approach to skills development and training. We want to create a place where young people can develop their skills in a practical way by working on projects and ideas provided by large corporate and government organisations, SMEs, and start-ups from the West Midlands area.
A secondary purpose is for The Ideator is to establish an incubator and development process for both new and established businesses to develop their ideas, whilst employing young people who have gone through The Ideator programme.
What do we hope to achieve?
Through The Ideator, Digital Innovators aims to:
- Enable young people (aged 16-24) to develop the skills needed to succeed in the workplace and gain experience working in a business environment.
- Facilitate collaboration between young people, industry experts, university researchers and government agencies to develop solutions to the latest industry challenges.
- Create the opportunity for young people to demonstrate skills in front of potential employers, as well as a pipeline to traineeships, apprenticeships, or full-time employment.
- Train participants in the new and in demand technical skills such as 5G, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and blockchain using platforms provided by world-leading technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft, BT, and Huawei.
- Encourage the development of business ideas after the initial programme. We will aid young people with the formation of their own start-ups, or continuation of projects developed with our employer partners.
Want to get involved?
We are incredibly excited for this next step on our journey of bridging the gap between young people and employment.
We are also keen to explore opportunities for further collaboration.
Whether you are an employer, a community organisation, an education provider, or individual – if you would like to get involved with The Ideator, please get in touch.