Working Well Design Challenge: the final pitches

Over the last year, we’ve been running a design competition with Nominet Trust to find better ways of using the internet to help young people learn new skills and find work.

After months of designing, coding and learning their lines, on Wednesday 30 January the three winners of the Working Well Design Challenge pitched their ventures to over 150 people from charities, social investors, business and government.

The day was split into two halves, a preview in the morning and a public launch in the evening. The morning kicked off with rousing speeches by John Mathers (Design Council CEO), Annika Small (Nominet Trust CEO) and Shaun Bailey (the Government’s community and youth engagement champion). In the evening we heard from Dan Sutch (Nominet Trust’s head of development research), Mat Hunter (the Design Council’s chief design officer) and Paul Miller (founder of Bethnal Green Ventures).

The pitches opened with the team behind Discoverables telling us how they help young people find, develop and demonstrate their key skills and strengths. After the applause for their fantastic video (below) had died down, Gianni took us through how Carl, one of 300 people who have used Discoverables in its first two weeks, has proved and improved his soft skills.

Next up was Sarah Drummond, from The Matter, a newspaper that lets young people tell the world what they think about issues that matter to them, whilst learning skills that are vital for employment. She introduced us to a group of young people from Edinburgh, who learned how to research, design and produce an edition of The Matter, whilst letting the council know what they thought about the future of their local area.

Sarah Drummond, The Matter

Finally, Darshan Sanghrajka introduced Step Up (now called State of Ambition). A website that helps young people identify their career ambition and connect with people who can help them achieve it. He told us about Matt and Eshaan, two of the first people to use the site, both of whom have now received job offers. It was great to see so many people at the event, and fantastic that lots of the audience pledged to support the three teams in the future.

Darshan Sanghrajka, State of Ambition

Thanks to all who came, our inspiring speakers, and the excellent Multiadaptor (who created the exhibition and brochures - as seen at the top of this page). Please get in touch if you want to find out more about the Working Well Design Challenge or the three teams.