The Technology4Good Youth Awards are an exciting new competition to encourage young people to use accessible technology to help make the world a better place.
The project can be helping the disabled, elderly, socially excluded etc, but must be either new or a substantial new element of an existing project, and must use technology as a significant component of the project.
Groups were invited to submit an application at the end of 2012 and these were shortlisted to 6 groups who were paired with corporate mentors. On the 17th April the Grand Final was held at Windsor Castle, with each group giving a presentation of their idea to a panel of judges.
Winners of the Youth Award Grand Final were Insight, from Mexborough School in Doncaster. Mentored by Amey, their project to develop an app to create audio description of the users vicinity impressed the judges with feasibility, sustainability, opportunity to help others and innovative use of technology.
Second place were Here2help from Prudhoe Community School, mentored by BT.
Third place was Tablebot from Adams Grammar School.
The runners up were the Joseph Leckie Enterprise Group from the Joseph Leckie Academy mentored, by Installation Technology, Door Assist from Nobel School sponsored by Fujitsu and App-solute Apps from Poynton High School, sponsored by Barclays.
The judges, Liz Williams – BT, Rob Barrett – Lloyds, Mike McGaughrin – Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and Nikki Fox – producer, presenter and journalist, awarded £5000 to Insight to help them make their project a reality.
Liz Williams, General Manager sustainable business at BT, said ‘We have been delighted to extend our support for Technology4Good into the Youth Awards. It has been truly inspirational and all the finalists are to be congratulated on their innovative ideas which made judging a difficult job.’
“Technology is a great enabler and helps us overcome many of the existing barriers we face in daily life. It can also empower and enable individuals of all abilities to reach their full potential. It is truly inspiring to see the range of innovative ideas coming through this competition, and we are fully committed to this initiative, which will support the community through the use of technology.” Dot Olanipekun Head of Communications, Corporate Banking Technology
“Innovation and investment in local communities, particularly young people, sits at the core of how Amey works. Our involvement with the Technology4Good Youth Awards builds on the company’s existing apprentice and graduate schemes, and recent Gold Investors in People Award. Our aim in partnering with T4G is to inspire young people and help develop the business minds of the future. Through active mentoring we hope to inspire our group to develop entrepreneurial and business skills, reach their full potential and make a real difference to society.” David Fawcett, Customer Services Manager – Local Government, Amey
Technology4Good Youth Awards is run by AbilityNet and Groundworks and is supported by Amey, BT, Barclays, Fujitsu and Installation Technology.
For more information please contact us at: T4GYouthAwards@groundwork.org.uk
- T4G Youth Award sponsors