Four students from Space Studio, West London are celebrating their victory in a recent competition to demonstrate workplace skills.
Teams from Space Studio West London, Wykham Park Academy and Futures Institute in Banbury, Rivers Academy, West London, Magna Academy, Poole, Budmouth Academy, Weymouth and Park Academy, West London had all qualified for the event held at Futures Institute, Banbury, having won previous heats at their schools.
The Aspiration Employability Diploma scheme was devised by Aspirations Academies Trust to develop workplace skills through project work with local businesses. Employers pose real world problems for teams in each school to solve. Following stringent judging within the academies, the best projects progress to the finals.
“Employability skills are key to future success,” explains Managing Director of Aspirations Academies Trust, Steve Kenning. “Students at Aspirations academies are offered opportunities to develop skills of communication, collaboration, leadership, problem solving, project management and presentation – all essential in the workplace.”
The winning team of Pearl Gonzales, Jaspreet Kaur, Mya Narmond and Marwa Amini had worked with science-based management consultancy ZS Associates on a project to develop an effective way to reduce gingivitis and gum disease.
The successful Space Studio team with their employability awards.
In a presentation during which all team members spoke, the audience heard about research they’d undertaken and the alternatives they’d explored under the mentorship of ZS’s Christopher Morgan. The competition was judged by business professionals from the worlds of virtual reality software, car manufacturing and civil engineering.
Sixth former, Pearl, who studies Maths, Chemistry and Physics at A level and has ambitions to study astrophysics at Cambridge, led the group: “I enjoy science and would like to make it my career. I researched the effectiveness of metronidazole in treating gum disease and whether or not we could make it available as candy. It was a great test of real world skills!”
Fellow sixth former Jaspreet is hoping to study aerospace engineering at Imperial. “The universities we are hoping to apply to place a high value on the skills we were demonstrating through our AED project and it was great to win against the other teams.”
Principal of Space Studio, West London, Andy Morgan commented, “The joy of the Aspirations Employability Diploma is that very often, a simple idea like the one this winning team came up with, is fleshed out as a solution to a complicated problem and makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before! We are all very proud of the innovative approach the girls took. They are worthy winners.”
Space Studio, West London on Letchworth Avenue, is holding an open evening on Monday, June 10 from 6pm for anyone interested in an education in their STEM focused studio school. Email info@spacestudiowestlondon.org to book a place.