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Digital Dragons

Digital Dragons 2013: Six Glasgow schools forge their own path into a brave new world of digital technology

By John Campbell

May 7, 2013 | 4 min read

Spider Online MD John Campbell believes not enough is being done to give children from less privileged backgrounds real-life experience of the world of work. Inspired by his introduction to working life, Campbell has worked with the Glasgow City Council Education Department to launch Digital Dragons, an initiative that provides school pupils from local Glasgow schools insight into working life in a leading digital agency.

Digital Dragons champions Springburn Academy

Last week saw the second annual Digital Dragons competition come to a head at Glasgow City Chambers with teams of four/five pupils from Lourdes, Govan High School, Lochend Community High School, Springburn Academy, Bannerman High School and St Andrews RC Secondary presenting a 15 minute pitch to a panel of experts.

To be honest after last year’s final, I didn’t think the quality of the presentations could be topped, but guess what, the teams’ performance was outstanding.

Just 10 weeks ago I set these teenagers the challenge of creating a business concept, allocating roles within their team and developing an idea that can be applied within a digital platform such as mobile or website.

I have been in the digital and communications sector for over 15 years, presenting and pitching to big and small clients alike with a mixture of belief, lack of belief, nerves and bravado. But that is the rub, I’ve quite a few more years under my belt than these young people and frankly they were fearless.

The panel - consisting of myself; Moira Abernethy, head of service development - education services at Glasgow City Council; and The Drum reporter Gillian West – sat through all six presentations finding the students well prepared, with their workload divided up amongst the team and even throwing in a wee bit of showbiz (which is always important to add that extra touch in this industry). All six teams confidently launched their bid to be Digital Dragons Champions 2013, a title which ultimately went to Springburn Academy – though it is worth nothing that it was so close the judges had to go through it a number of times before we had an outright winner.

In my opinion all of the students who took part this year deserve to be commended for the effort and strong work ethic they put into their ideas and pitches, even when you don’t win you progress and develop and this is just as important.

Spider Online launched Digital Dragons to give those from less privileged backgrounds the opportunity to grow self-confidence, improve their teamwork capabilities and social skills all the while gaining an insight into working life and I hope everyone who took part this year enjoyed the experience but, most of all, left with a strong sense of belief in their own abilities and the potential opportunities open to them in the world beyond the school gates.

Even in the turmoil that is austerity as we know it today, all public and private sector organisations need creative and energetic people to help our economy grow out of the mess we are in. With projects such as Entrepreneurial Spark taking off across Scotland and the UK and the Commonwealth Games Graduate Fund I believe these young people will hopefully have the means to grow into confident young adults that can forge a path for themselves and others in this brave new world of digital technology, that oldies like me (47!) are just managing to hold onto.

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