200 local youngsters get the iDEA

Pupils from local schools are among the first to receive The Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award from The Duke himself

STUDENTS at West Yorkshire schools are among the first in the world to participate in a new awards scheme designed to boost their digital skills.  Their success was rewarded at a University of Huddersfield event where the man behind it, His Royal Highness The Duke of York, KG, presented more than 200 of the youngsters with special certificates.

story continues below...

The Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award – known as iDEA – was conceived as the digital and enterprise equivalent of the long-established Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, and Bronze Awards can be earned by taking a range of digital and enterprise challenges.  Soon, Silver and Gold Awards will be available, and teachers at the special ceremony said that many of their pupils were eager to step up to the next level.

After handing out certificates to pupils from ten schools in the region, The Duke of York – who is Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield – explained the concept behind iDEA.

“It is about getting young people to recognise that when they go to work they are going to have to inter-act with some form of digital activity, so we have designed or a series of awards that enable you to pursue those that you think are going to be most useful to you, and they are skills in which employers are going to be particularly interested,” said His Royal Highness.

He praised the successful students as “early adopters” whose feedback had been valuable to the development of iDEA, and His Royal Highness admitted the influence of father’s long-established and globally-successful Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

“We have stolen quite a lot of it!  But we are more interested in the digital skills aspect of young people’s future and things that you can do to change your own future.  This is about you making a difference to yourselves.”

Teachers from all of the ten schools represented at the ceremony praised iDEA.  One described it as a “superb initiative”.  The Head of Computing at Holmfirth High School, Mr Stephen Knowles, told the audience that he had been involved with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for 27 years and he believed that iDEA would be a “brilliant complement”.

story continues below...

Mr Lukman Patel, Head of Enterprise and Ethics, at Westborough High School in Dewsbury, told how iDEA had become embedded at the school, with more than 350 pupils enrolled for the Bronze award.  “Here’s to Silver and Gold!” he said.

The Duke of York was introduced by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, and the MC at the ceremony was Professor Rupert Ward – Associate Dean (International) in the University’s School of Computing and Engineering.  He played a major role in developing iDEA, as its Project Lead.  He served for eighteen months as Special Adviser to The Duke of York and was on secondment at Buckingham Palace.

Other key figures in iDEA include Kerensa Jennings, who is Director of the Office of His Royal Highness and also a Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield.  She too attended the presentation of certificates, a ceremony that took place during the University’s July 2017 succession of graduation ceremonies.

Schools whose pupils attended the iDEA presentation ceremony were:

• Brighouse High School
• Castle Hall Academy
• Holmfirth High School
• Huddersfield Grammar School
• Kettlethorpe High School
• Lightcliffe Academy
• North Huddersfield Trust School
• Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
• Wakefield Girls’ High School
• Westborough High School