UBS Grads tackle challenges facing east London

Written by Antonia Williams, Connect Programme Manager, ELBA

An important part of ELBA’s work is identifying new ways to respond to emerging challenges facing the east London community. On 8th July we were fortunate enough to be supported in this work by a fantastic group of 100 UBS graduates, who took part in a workshop focused on designing a solution to address one of three key challenges ELBA is currently tackling. Working in teams of 5, the graduates selected one of the following challenges that ELBA is currently tackling:

1. How can business volunteers best motivate and inspire students after a disrupted school year?
2. How can ELBA offer additional support to build the skills and confidence of the recipients of digital device donations?
3. How can business volunteers help third sector organisations in east London respond to the climate change emergency?

Once they had chosen their challenge, the teams had two hours to design and develop a project or idea that would address this issue. They completed a project brief and ended the session by presenting their solution to a member of the ELBA team for feedback. The projects included a range of innovative ideas, including:

• The gamification of digital skills support for young people
• Creating an online platform with digital skills content for job seekers
• Intergenerational digital skills sharing between students and older people
• Educational games to inspire young people and teach them about careers
• Using social media to engage students and connect them with volunteers
• Interactive career days with games, quizzes and prizes
• Pop up digital skills events

The ELBA team were incredibly impressed with projects and grateful for the support of the graduates. The workshop presented ELBA with a unique opportunity to benefit from the insight and perspective of corporate volunteers, as well as generating new solutions and initiatives to apply to our work. We will be running the session again on 8th September with a new cohort of graduates and can’t wait to hear their ideas! A big thank you to everyone involved.

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