Students from Abingdon and Witney took The Plunge!

FLUX 2011 – Frequently Asked Questions

FLUX 2011 – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Please keep checking this page, we will be updating this with useful information as the event gets closer!

What happens at FLUX?

Take a look at these two video’s here and here that were filmed at FLUX 2010.  These will give you an insight into what to expect next month, and clues on how your team could possibly prepare for the event.

When is FLUX 2011 taking place?

Flux is taking place on 11th and 12th April 2011.

What is the prize?

At the Grand Final there is £500 cash prize for each member of the 6-person winning team.

How do students register?

Registration forms are being sent to the Champions.  These must be completed and returned by 25th March 2011.

What’s a Champion?

A Champion is the person at your university that is coordinating FLUX for you. They help to choose the team that goes to the Final and make sure you get there!

If I don’t have a Champion does that mean we can’t have a team competing?

You can compete without a Champion but we will need the name of the Student Team Captain whom will be responsible for their team. So if you want to take part, get a team of 6 together and then get in touch.

Venue Address

South Bristol
Skills Academy
The Boulevard
Hengrove Park
Bristol
BS14 0DB

Timings

11^th April 2011 – 1.00pm – 7.00pm for event.  7.00pm – 9.00pm – Networking with Experts
12^th April 2011 – 9.00am – 7.00pm for event.  After party until late!

Hotels

IBIS
Avon Street
BS2 0PS

This hotel is close to Temple Meads train station, and is convenient for bus stop that serves buses to the venue.

If you have booked into the Premier Inn South, please keep this booking as it is closest to the venue, but now full on those dates.

Transport Links

By car

Online street maps and sat nav

If using an online street map or sat nav when travelling to South Bristol Skills Academy, please use Constellation Europe’s postcode - BS14 0JZ. Constellation Europe Ltd is the building next to South Bristol Skills Academy on Whitchurch Lane.

By Bus

Current bus services to Hengrove Park are numbers 20, 36, 75, 76 and 90. There is a bus stop outside the Skills Academy.

By Train

Bus service 20 provides a direct link between Bristol Temple Meads railway station and Hengrove Park.

For further train service information, please call the National Rail Enquiry Line on 08457 48 49 50 or visit National Rail Enquiries.

Agenda

This will be sent to you closer to the date of the event

Can extra university staff attend?

Yes, there is a cost of £100 plus vat.  This will include access to the Enterprise Conference, all meals and refreshments, as well as experiencing the main FLUX 2011 event.

Does there have to be six in a team?

Yes, ideally.  This is a very intensive competition and your team could be at a real disadvantage with less than six people participating.

Do we have to name our team?

This will be done on the first day of the event

Dress Code

Casual for day one, business attire recommended for day two.

Food and Drink

Day One – Hot buffet in evening.  Drinks throughout the day.

Day Two – Buffet lunch, refreshments throughout the day.

A student took part in FLUX 2010, can they take part in FLUX 2011?

Yes!

Is the competition open to Graduates as well as Undergraduates?

The competition is open to full time students of the university, whether they are undergraduates or graduates.

Is there parking at the venue?

Yes

Youth unemployment is costing the economy £10m a day in lost productivity, so the need to give students work and employability skills training is greater than ever.

The Guardian reported this month that an ‘aspect of the worrying trend in youth unemployment is that there are thousands of young people who don’t have the skills, confidence or qualifications to find their first job.  They may have struggled at school or grown up thinking no one cared, and they are being driven further from the job market, as they struggle to compete with a backlog of graduates.’

So it’s clear that we need to tackle this entrenched youth unemployment now and that educators and employers must work together to give these disadvantaged young people the long-term support they need to escape unemployment for good.  1 million youth unemployed makes for a frightening headline.

One way colleges are responding is to offer the Work and Employability Skills qualifications this coming academic year to give their students an edge in the job market.

At Working Knowledge we partner with FE colleges nationally to deliver work, employability, enterprise and life skills on your behalf.  We do all the planning delivery and portfolio collection for you.

We deliver the qualifications by running events that are exciting, challenging and fun.  The events involve local and regional employers that we recruit on your behalf and who, in many cases, go on to offer students work placements, guest lectures and apprenticeships.

Students not only feel more confident about their career goals after our events, thanks to a large extent to the engagement with local business people, but also feel more motivated to complete their core programme.

Our partner colleges fund our programmes that last from 1-3 days either through the qualifications that we deliver on your behalf (including all portfolio collection) or through project funds such as Aimhigher.

Take a look below at what local employers and students thought about recent Working Knowledge events held in Bristol;

If this is of interest to you, then please email  james.lott@twkg.net for more information.

Achieve your student numbers and protect your SLN with a Short Course this summer.

If you have not quite reached your student number then delivering a short course this summer could protect your SLN. The problem that you might face however might be organising such a course for the numbers you need this late in the academic year.

We are running one day events for a number of our partner colleges this July to deliver for them WWO L1 in a single day. Each event accommodates up to 120 students and for one college we are running the event twice in order to guarantee the numbers they need.

We still have capacity to deliver three more events in July. For more on this story go here

Expanding FE Employability and Enterprise Skills Provision

Working Knowledge has entered the Barclays “Take One Small Step” business competition (https://www.takeonesmallsetep.co.uk/Entry/View/2474) which is a national business competition with regional prizes of £50k in cash.  £50,000 would enable us to build capacity to deliver events to 5,000 more students and 1,000 employers this year and then enable those colleges to continue to provide the same every year thereafter.  Read more here

Barnsley College Make a Splash!

Barnsley College started the New Year with an energetic Splash. Over 100 students from Levels 1 and 2 took part in this one day event. Teams came up with 29 business ideas which they developed and presented to a judging panel.

This was a pilot event for Level 1 and 2 students engaged in a wide-variety of core subjects from Music to Health and Beauty, IT to Early Year.

The event was delivered by The Working Knowledge Group as part of the Nationally Award Winning Ride the Wave Programme for Further Education Colleges.

To find out more about Ride The Wave click here

Gateshead College Make a Splash

The Make a Splash programme comes to Gateshead College on 9th June 2009. Eighty AS Level students from Gateshead College and a local school, together with 12 local employers, will take part.

Gateshead College are using this one day pilot programme to enthuse their students and expose them to the world of work.

The programme is being held at Gateshead College, Baltic Campus.

To find out more about Make a splash click here

Lakes College – 24th College to Ride the Wave

On 12th May 2009 150 students from Lakes College West Cumbria, together with 12 local employers, will take part in Make a Splash (think The Apprentice meets Dragon’s Den).

Lakes College are using this one day pilot programme to develop the enterprise and employability skills of their students and expose them to the world of work.

Said Cyril Wheat, Assistant Principal – External Relations, “Lakes College believes that links with employers are important and view this activity as an essential part of our students programme. The links between learning and work have never been so vital and Make a Splash is the ideal tool to raise student awareness of enterprise and employability.”

Portfolio evidence for Working With Others at Level 1 will be collected during the event; Ride the Wave programmes are fundable through the Wider Key Skills framework.

The programme is being held at the Seacote Hotel at St Bees, wonderfully situated on the West Cumbrian Coast, on the edge of the breathtaking Lake District National Park.

The students – mostly level 2 – are from Construction, Carpentry & Joinery, Brickwork, Painting and Decorating, Engineering and Business courses.

Swindon College Students take part in Dragon’s Den Competition

Swindon College became the first college in Wiltshire to hold a programme similar to the BBC 2 ‘Dragon’s Den’ scenario for students last week. Sixty students studying Level 2 qualifications at the college were given an opportunity to create, plan and propose their product ideas to a group of local business ‘experts’. The programme, called ‘Ride the Wave’ was organised by a Skills and Enterprise Training company ‘Working Knowledge’.

The Ride the Wave programme has already been delivered at 27 colleges nationally and aims to engage employers, boost students employability and deliver key skills qualifications.“The students who took part also forged new friendships with students on other courses, improved their self-confidence and aspirations and provided a better understanding of business and the skills required” said Pat Wilkins,director of Learning and Skills at Swindon College.

James Lott, Sales and Marketing Director of Working Knowledge said:

“We are committed to narrowing the gap between education and the workplace; raising the aspirations and employability skills of students and opening the eyes of employers to how young people can help drive business success in a rapidly changing economic environment.”
“The students who take part also gain a Level 1 Key Skills qualification in Working with Others.”

The nine local business experts who took part in the event as the ‘dragons’, gave ‘friendly’ advice on product design, pricing, promotion and sales to the students. Plumbing student, Aeron Douglas, aged 16 said:

“It was great to talk to the experts and get advice, our product sounds believable now, everybody is getting really competitive!”

At the end of the event, the eleven groups of students presented their product ideas and business plan to the experts. Two teams won £100 for their winning ideas, the first was an innovative alarm clock idea and the other team came up with a hologram concept.

To find out more about Ride the Wave click here.