The Push the Boat Out scheme aims to boost confidence, communication and problem solving skills to boost the future employment prospects of city teenagers.‌

The Technocamps project based at Swansea University teamed up with Swansea Council’s Young People Services who led the five week programme, together with Menter Iaith, Communities First, Careers, Keeping in Touch Project, Outdoor Activity Centres, the Ohana Project and the Traveller Education Service.It included everything from Come Dine With Me style cooking challenges to Young Apprentice style entrepreneurial tasks, raft making and robot building challenges and even a Bush Tucker Challenge during a series of four-day residential courses.

Will Evans, Swansea Council Cabinet member for Learning and Skill, said: “Swansea Council and other agencies in the city have made it a priority to reduce the number of teenagers failing to progress to further education or into a career after leaving school. We want to enable them achieve their full potential and prevent them becoming a burden on society.

“I am delighted at the success of the summer camps and grateful to all the partners for making them such a success.”

The Technocamps project held sessions introducing the world of app development to the teenagers aged 14 to 25 years old. During the workshops the young people had an opportunity to learn about app development and were tasked with creating, developing and programming a tourism guide app.  Tasks included coming up with a catchy app name, collecting the information that would be required to put into the app,as well as coming up with a unique selling point for their application.They were also introduced to the MIT App Inventor software.They then had to present their creations to other groups.

Amelia Edwards, aged 16, from Brynhyfryd, who took part, said:  “When I first thought about making an app it seemed impossible but after designing the first screen it became a lot easier!"

Mark Leyshon, from Technocamps, said: "They came up with some fantastic, original ideas which would work perfectly in a tourism application."

Professor Faron Moller, Director of Technocamps at Swansea University, added, "Overall the summer residential workshops were a great success as they inspired, encouraged and motivated some of the participants to consider further learning and possible job prospects in the area of Computer Science in a fun and unpressurised environment."

Pictures:

Group pic: Pictured are young people sharing their tourism app ideas with the Technocamps team.

Skateboard pic: Port Eynon was the place to be this Summer at the 'Push the boat out' programme run by Swansea Council Youth Service in collaboration with Technocamps.

• Technocamps - Led by Swansea University in partnership with the Universities of Bangor, Aberystwyth and Glamorgan, Technocamps is backed by the European Social Fund through the Welsh Government and focuses on a range of topics including robotics, games and software development; as well as animation and digital forensics.
  
  
• Technocamps has established a pan Wales programme of activities and workshops designed to raise awareness amongst pupils (11-19) of potential career opportunities available in a range of computer science, technology and engineering disciplines and encourage them to study STEM with a view to pursuing such opportunities.  
  
  
• The £3.2bn Structural Funds programmes 2007-2013 in Wales include the Convergence programmes for West Wales and the Valleys (the successor to Objective 1), and the Regional Competitiveness and Employment programmes for East Wales. The programmes are delivered through the Welsh Government and are aimed at creating employment opportunities and boosting economic growth.