There has been a brilliant buzz in the surroundings of the Camden office this week as young and old, office workers and children on school trips enjoyed the sunshine and the roster of activities that help make Camden such a hive of opportunity from degree shows at Central Saint Martins to national Graduate Fashion this week in Coal Drops Yard. It got me thinking about the experiences that over 170 Camden Year 12 students will be having in Kings Cross next month as they embark on STEAM work experience placements at leading Camden employers from Google and CSM, to Camden Council and the Francis Crick/MSD. This is our first time running an in-person/hybrid STEAM work experience programme, building on the success of the virtual programme developed during the pandemic – which really got employers opening their virtual (and now physical!) doors at a scale and quality of placement we haven’t seen before. Whilst the feedback on virtual placements was excellent, young people were clear that they would prefer in-person placements, and teachers felt students would further develop their employability skills this way. We will be comparing and sharing the impact data with great interest.

Meanwhile, a whole range of in-person employer workshops with STEAM partners are taking place across primary and secondary schools, from Rhyl’s Year 5 spending a morning at the Google office and an upcoming hackathon at DeepMind for Year 10s from underrepresented backgrounds, to a careers talk from inspirational female STEAM Ambassadors for Year 9 girls at Acland Burghley choosing their GCSE options, and Regent High Year 7s working with Lendlease on how nature can inspire the social and ecological evolution of the public realm in Euston. Several schools are holding exhibitions to share the STEAM curriculum projects they have collaborated on with employers, such as Edith Neville who shared this wonderful feedback “We had a brilliant STEAM exhibition where the children presented their work to their parents. They had great pride in demonstrating the knowledge and skills they had learnt too. The parents LOVED it and left with a real buzz about them. All who attended were impressed with the level of knowledge the children had and the real life application they had.”. We will be sharing many more opportunities with STEAM employers (for every key stage) soon – watch this space!

Danielle Tobin

Director of STEAM & Partnerships