Accrington Stanley hosts Hyndburn Education Summit

#AmazingAccrington business leaders, local schools and education providers all came together for the annual Hyndburn Education Summit on Friday 17th May, which was held at Accrington Stanley's world class hospitality venue, the 1968 Lounge.

The event discussed topical and relevant areas including digital skills within schools, the availability of apprenticeships, investments in the local area including a new Business Hub at Accrington and Rossendale College, and the importance of encouraging engineering and STEM subjects.

The delegates also heard from Dr Susan Scurlock, founder and CEO of Primary Engineer, who gave a fascinating talk about their work to embed engineering and creative thinking into students of primary age as well as secondary, to give them cross-curriculum idea generation skills as well as encouraging a take up of STEM subjects. As a special prize sponsored by Scott Dawson Advertising and iMEP International Music Event Production, Liam Noon of St Nicholas CE Primary won the draw for a free Primary Engineer programme worth over £1000 for his school.

Also speaking at the event were MP for Hyndburn and Haslingden Sara Britcliffe, #AmazingAccrington chair Murray Dawson, Sundown Solutions CEO Heath Groves, North Lancs Training Group quality of education director Robin Lindsay, Accrington & Rossendale College centre principal Morag Davis, Accrington Stanley managing director David Burgess, Emerson & Renwick managing director Ben Clements, The Vita Group innovation manager Dr Sam Hill, St Christopher's CE High School headteacher Richard Jones, Lancashire Business View chairman Richard Slater, and iMEP International Music Event Production CEO Eddy O'Brien.

Richard Jones, headteacher, St Christopher's CE High School said: "This is a great forum for educators and business to get together, find out what's going on in the borough and engage with each other."

Heath Groves, CEO, Sundown Solutions, added: "It's important for Sundown Solutions' future workforce, that people are encouraged at a young age to engage and learn digital skills, and see it as a career pathway. The education sector is also a key market for us, in the areas of cyberattack and AI."

David Burgess, managing director, Accrington Stanley Football Club commented: "Here at Accrington Stanley we are proud to host the Amazing Accrington Education Summit 2024.

"We've always been really supportive of our younger generations, through the Community Trust and at the matches. We're really proud of the work we do with the school shirt giveaways, it's the best day of the year!"

Jo Hardwick, headteacher, Hyndburn Park Primary School also added: "It's been a great day here at the Education Summit. Amazing Accrington events are great for finding out information about the borough I need to know, and their engagement with us is invaluable. The Primary Engineer presentation was really interesting and a great way of improving STEM skills. I'd encourage all schools to get involved, we've really got a lot out of it!"

You can see more on opportunities for young people on the purpose built area of the #AmazingAccrington website here: www.opportunities.amazingaccrington.co.uk

You can see more about the work of Primary Engineer here: www.primaryengineer.com