There are 4 stages you need to follow before entering the Big Ideas Youth Challenge:
1. Put together a team
Before you enter the competition you need to put together your team of between 3-4 people. Your team can be made up of friends, family, school mates or pretty much anyone you want …as long as they are under 20 years old! In previous years we have had applications from schools, scouts, cubs, army cadets, families, colleges and pretty much any other youth groups you can think of.
2. Get your adult
Each team entering the competition needs to have an adult mentor. This is someone that will support you throughout the competition and provide assistance when you need it e.g. travel to and from events and looking after your team if you get to the HotHouse residential stage of the competition. Your adult mentor can be a teacher, parent or youth group leader but before you and your team nominate someone, make sure you ask them first!
If your adult mentor would like further information on what is expected of them get them to visit the website and click here to visit the “Adult Mentors” page, or even better, visit this page yourself and print it off for them to read and retain for future reference.
Links: Adult Mentors page »
3. Come up with your idea
This is the most important part of the application stage! Your idea is what we are interested in and that’s what makes it so important. So in a nutshell we're looking for:
Innovative ideas that either involves developing new technologies or that use existing technologies, in a way that has never been done before.
Big Ideas Youth Challenge is here to support you and stimulate idea generation prior to submitting your idea. Should you need help, Big Ideas can visit your school, youth clubs etc. Please email info@bigideasyouthchallenge.co.uk for further details.
You don’t need to be a computer whiz to enter this competition. You just need to come up with an idea for a product or a service that uses software or ICT in a way it’s never been used before or something that has been done already but you could make better! You could be a games fanatic, interested in designing your own programme or a budding artist looking to bring your ideas to life!
The ideas can relate to anything you like. So get brainstorming* and submit your ideas online before the 15th December 2010!
*If you're not sure how to ‘Brainstorm’ click here for some ideas on how to come up with that winning idea. Or check out the Technology Exhibition video on You Tube that may give you some inspiration by looking at technology from the recent past.
Links: Brainstorming help page
4. Submit your application
So now that you have your team, you have your adult mentor and have got the winning idea you need to enter the competition. Entering the competition is simple! You simply click here to visit our ‘Enter your idea now’ page and fill in the application form. We want you to tell us about you and your idea, who would buy it, what makes it different from anything that exists at the moment and how your idea will change peoples lives? This shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes.
Links: Enter your idea now!
