BAE Systems Australia partners with Smith Family for STEM

BAE Systems Australia announced a A$100,000 partnership with The Smith Family to support schools to participate in the Young ICT Explorers programme, Australia’s biggest student invention competition. Young ICT Explorers is a STEM-focused competition for students in years 3 – 12. The competition aims to inspire students to consider a future STEM career. The competition has been run by software company, SAP, for more than 10 years. Over the next three years, BAE Systems will support an Accelerator Programme that will provide schools with the financial support and hardware that they need to participate as well as mentoring and coaching for the teachers to enable them to develop their digital skills. BAE Systems’ ‘techsperts’, along with specialists from Junior Engineers, will run professional development workshops with The Smith Family for school teachers to train them in using Micro:bit technology which can be used for YICTE competition projects. BAE Systems Australia Chief Technology Officer Brad Yelland said “I am delighted to partner with The Smith Family to support teachers across Australia develop new skills that they can use now and in the future. Our business relies on STEM skilled employees and it’s important that we support programs like YICTE that will enable learning opportunities for young people and which could lead to future careers pioneering new technologies. The increasing digital divide is increasing which means that a huge number of young people are at risk of being left out of the workforce of the future and teachers are the key to ensuring the next generation of problem solvers and inventors have both the skills and capability to develop pioneering new technologies.” For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]