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2003: the vision realised?
This website, too, is a new development. We hope that it will grow - not merely to showcase the project as it does currently, but to showcase the work of the individuals and organisations that participate. ICT will become another element of the project - this website will allow schools to enter a password-protected area and upload their own pictures and text descriptions of pieces. A pilot version is available here - enter the ID schools and the password schools in the LOGIN menu to explore how it works. The What is this? link should explain all...
The website may also help to develop the embryonic human networks that have started to form as a result of the annual events. Teachers, pupils and other interested parties will be able to use a bulletin board or forum system on this site to exchange news and views and 'network' with one another. Who knows? There's potential to lay the foundations for an online design education community here...
The whole project will continue to develop from the ground up - building on the basic enthusiasm of the launch partners and growing in response to and with the help of participants. This is not an infrastructure being imposed from above...instead, it demonstrates how effective a private-sector-led partnership can become with appropriate support from the public sector.
Our vision would see other elements of skill building being enabled and developed through this project, online and offline. For instance, it could become a clearing house for Design and Technology work experience placements, year round. It could offer advice and guidance to young people interested in developing a craft or artisan career, linking to or providing an interpretation of current information on college courses and Modern Apprenticeships.
Working with other local initiatives, such as the Welsh Timber Forum and Heartwoods, we'd like to be able to encourage, and perhaps help enable, schools to be able to use quality timber in Design Technology classes, rather than MDF or pine.
But most of all, we'd like to take the work of more young people to larger and more diverse audiences. The benefits are clear - raising the profile of traditional artisan and craft skills and celebrating young people's work in relevant areas can only encourage more young people and more parents to see the acquisition of skills as worthwhile. Food and drink has already been added to our portfolio. Other activies can follow.
This year, it looks like over 50 schools will be involved. And the project has now crossed country borders, not just county borders. The Welsh Development Agency will be funding the participation of 4 schools in the Welsh Marches. Further Education colleges, too, will be involved. And a quartet of events in the Marches will take our skills message to an audience of as many as 100,000 paying visitors.
May - Ludlow Craft Fair - at least 20 schools and
3 FE colleges
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