Mayowa Banjo and Ian Fung, students from Tiffin School, enjoyed a unique learning experience at BT Adastral Park in Ipswich. The group of forty 15 and 17 year old students spent three days finding out how to turn their creative engineering ideas into reality.

Sponsored by BT, this course provided an introduction into how technical innovations can be produced, marketed and sold in the real world. Students learnt everything they needed to know about starting their own flourishing enterprise, including technical, financial and marketing advice. They had the chance to impress a panel of BT experts with their most inventive and imaginative ideas, and to use the latest software packages to make prototypes of their products.

Throughout the course, students developed life skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving and time management.

Phil Lennard, Director – Education Outreach BT Innovate & Design, added “It was inspiring to see the students become engaged in the event so quickly; they embraced the technology and seized upon the opportunities and challenges that technology can often bring. Additionally, it was really impressive to see them work together to form cohesive and effective teams, especially as most of them had never met before. Finally, seeing these young people develop their ideas into potentially excellent revenue generating opportunities was just excellent.”