L to R: Kellie Boston, Scott Carpenter, Mike Shove (CSC), Luke Smith, Craig Whitney and Anthony Jordan

 Another 11 young people graduated through CSC’s ground-breaking and award-winning “Give IT a Go” scholarship program in Australia this July.

The scholarships are a joint initiative of CSC, the New South Wales Department of Community Services (DoCS) and the CREATE Foundation. The goal of this initiative is to give young people in state care the chance to develop practical IT skills and explore career opportunities in the industry.

The program, now in its second year, selects a small group of teenagers between 15 and 17 years old to take part in the three-month program with two week-long e-camps held at CSC’s offices in Sydney and Canberra. The 11 scholarship winners came from all over New South Wales — from Casino to Wagga Wagga, from Bonalbo (population 500) to Mittagong, Gosford and Newcastle and from various parts of Sydney. The teens shared a common drive and determination to succeed.

“We see this program as being incredibly valuable,” says Melissa Dryden, who manages the Give IT a Go program for DoCS. “We want to use the opportunity to make an investment in the future of these young people and help them make a successful transition from school to work.”

Teens developed Web site in two weeks

The e-camps take the scholarship winners through the same professional processes as the CSC teams working with them.

The group was commissioned to develop a special Web site for Streetwize Communications, a leading national not-for-profit organization, which specializes in communicating social, health and legal issues to hard-to-reach groups, including young people, indigenous communities and linguistically diverse audiences. Their specific task was to develop the new Youthwize Web site to convey key messages to young people about sexual harassment.

Streetwize project coordinator Jo Taylor briefed the Give IT a Go team at the start of first e-camp and monitored progress. “We gave them the brief, they came up with the ideas,” Taylor says. “They are an exceptionally intelligent and creative group of young people and they really enjoyed coming to grips with an issue that is directly relevant to them.”

In the end, they delivered a Web site featuring two comics with voice-overs, plus Web pages with tips and quizzes about how to avoid sexual harassment. The result is a Web site designed by young people for young people.

“The end product is an engaging Web site, especially when you think that it was developed in just two weeks,” says Leanne Clarkson from the CREATE Foundation. “The power of young people who share similar backgrounds coming together and inspiring each other can never be overestimated.”

Streetwize plans to officially launch the Youthwize Web site in December 2003.

Developing personal and workplace skills

The program was not confined to the two e-camps, though. Between the camps, the scholarship winners also worked on IT projects in their local areas — one developing a Web site for his brother’s pet shop business.

Mike Shove, CSC Chief Executive Officer, Australian Group, says the scholarship winners developed personal and workplace skills rapidly, and also learned about the cutting edge of technology. “At the start of the program they were understandably hesitant,” he says. “By the end of the second week, those uncertain individuals had become a unified group, confident in its growing abilities, working as a team, prioritizing projects, meeting demanding deadlines and understanding the workplace culture.”

At a special graduation ceremony in Sydney, Shove presented each of the scholarship winners with certificates of achievement and a laptop computer, jointly donated with IBM.

“The laptops allow each of the graduates to further explore their interest in technology,” Shove says. “It’s a fitting reward. Each of them has the capacity to achieve a bright future in IT. And each demonstrated that they are worthy winners of a Give IT a Go Scholarship.”

The Give IT a Go Scholarship program is an important part of CSC’s corporate responsibility initiative. It is the only youth development program of its type in Australia. The inaugural scholarships in 2002 were awarded a bronze prize in the Social Justice/Workforce Diversity category of the NSW Premier’s Public Sector Awards.

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