Eve Jeffery
The sparks were flying, and building, and discovering and creating this week at Wollongbar as the TAFE hosted its annual Bright Sparks program, a free, three-day science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics event preparing young students and school leavers for jobs of the future.
This event which brings bright sparks and future thinkers together from schools, university and community across the Northern Rivers, is designed for students and their families to take a peek inside the classrooms of the future and get an understanding of the careers that we can expect to emerge.
North Coast TAFE Innovation Consultant Peter Smith said in his introduction to the workshops that our future workforce is undergoing a significant transformation with almost fifty per cent of the current careers likely to change over the next ten years.
The program delivered a wide range of workshops including Clean Energy For Now and Into The Future 3D Life; Next Gen Pilots – Drones; 3D Printing A New Path Forward; The Home: An Alternate Design; Energy: Powering Our Future; Step Into Virtual Reality; Biodynamic Farming & Understanding Soil Quality; Using Human Energy To Brighten Your Day; Coding & Robotics and Scientist Automotive & Science Biodiesel – Fuelling Cars From Kitchen Scraps.
Experts in their fields including Simon Jardine, Brian Forbes, James Novak Mirabai Nicholson, Dale Lindley, Will Gammon and Ronny Matzat were on hand to take questions and tempt visitors with amazing career choice opportunities.
Organisers were very excited that the event had capacity students from as young as ten right up to senior students hungry for information to take their lives and careers into the future.
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