Bendigo Tech School Ambassadors meet fortnightly with mentors from local industry and lead event design and learn new skills in leadership. 

This term Student Ambassadors have been divided into teams, and we have been working on designing an imaginary, industry-focused 3-day program for other students to partake in.

Our first task was to research different industries, then define user needs and a design problem brief so that other students can create solutions using the technology and materials available at the Tech School.

We brainstormed ideas for both the user needs and the design problem and discussed how it linked to the specific industry of our choice. These industries included: Transport; Advanced Manufacturing; and Healthcare. The groups also had to decide the age of the students who would be participating in the program.

The ambassadors then created an outline for the 3-day program with a rundown of what would be covered each day. Each group focussed on the Design Thinking Process while creating their programs to help students come up with their own solutions to the brief.

We then came up with a presentation to pitch our ideas to members of the Tech School in the following weeks. Finally, we pitched our ideas to Robbie Philpott & Aime Sacrez. We had to justify and explain why we chose a particular industry to focus on, why we think students would enjoy our program, and respond to questions.

It has been worthwhile learning about the Tech School through a program designer’s eyes. It has allowed us to have a better understanding of how the Tech School works with Bendigo's industry.

Deanna (Catherine McAuley College) and Lilly (Bendigo South East College).