The ITWales project which is led by Swansea University in partnership with Aberystwyth, Bangor and Glamorgan Universities is about getting young people in Wales excited about computing and challenging them to think about the world around them in a different way.

Over the next three months young people from a range of different backgrounds will attend workshops and bootcamps across all of the partner universities to get to grips with Games Salad, Alice, Scratch, App Inventor, Robotics, iOS App development, Computer Games Ethics, Sketch Patch and Wearables.

Professor Faron Moller, Director of Technocamps at Swansea University, said, “It is great to see so many young people benefiting from this fantastic project.  The basic fundamental skills of computing that they are learning are setting them up for life to either continue their education in this field or to pursue a career in this exciting industry.

We are really pleased that many of the young people raise their aspirations and are actually now considering going on to further learning because of what they have experienced through the Technocamps concept.’

The project’s new interactive website has recently been launched www.technocamps.com, this hosts a dedicated area for 11-15’s, 16-19’s, Teachers and Educators, Business and an interactive Technozone. 

The site currently provides free on-line resources for Scratch, Games Salad and Alice with more on the way.  This will give teachers and educators the material and the guidance needed to feel confident about taking this back to the classroom so that the young people can continue to benefit from these new skills. 

Information will shortly be available giving guidance on how to set up a Technoclub, which is an extra-curricular activity that can be run at lunch time or after school. Young people will be set a number of challenges to do during the club that will aim to inspire them to continue to learn in a fun and creative way.

The site also promotes events, Facebook and Twitter activity as well as the Technozone which provides links to games and free downloads, this area is set to grow to include showcasing the work that young people actually produce in the workshops. 

The project is backed by £3.9 million from the European Social Fund through the Welsh Government, the project delivers a series of outreach programmes to schools, colleges and other educational providers within the convergence area of Wales, inspiring young people to consider the computing-based topics underpinning the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Technocamps has the long term goal of encouraging them to pursue careers in an area that will drive economic growth in Wales.

Technocamps is led by Swansea University in partnership with the universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor and Glamorgan.

For further information email communications@technocamps.com.