This year PwC (formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers) launched a large STEM initiative aimed at “unearthing, growing and scaling Australia’s best STEM education initiatives focused on building Australia’s pipeline of innovators and problem solvers”. Acting on the urgent need to increase the number and quality of science & technology graduates and utilizing PwC’s considerable network of experts, the newly formed PwC 21st Century Minds Accelerator Program brings together nationally & globally recognised education & business leaders to mentor and grow 20 Australian STEM initiatives through a series of focused meetings and events during the course of 2016.

Fizzics’s science club offerings have been selected as part of the 21CM initiative and earlier this week an intense 2 day boot camp was held in PwC’s Sydney offices where we were able to spend time with the variety of STEM providers including coders, technologists, engineers, educators to discuss our shared challenges and opportunities to make high quality science education available across the nation. You can find out more about each initiative here.

As part of our involvement in the 21CM project, Holly Kershaw will work with Young Social Pioneers program throughout the year and work with the PwC mentor team to develop our science clubs resources & support infrastructure so that they can be quickly delivered across Australia where they are needed. Below is a quick video from this weeks event which highlights the variety of programs being supported by the 21CM project and the calibre of the contributers:

During the two day event this week there was a special evening ‘Creating Australia’s Future Innovators’ which featured a number of renowned business and education thought leaders including a keynote address by Dr Tony Wagner from Harvard Universities Innovation Lab and a panel discussion led by PwC’s education leader Tony Peake along with Jan Owen (CEO Foundation for Young Australians), Sally-Ann Williams (Engineering Community & Outreach Program Manager, Google Australia), Stacey Quince (Principal & NSW Dept of Education) and Taj Pabari (young entrepreneur).

The 21CM project is supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist through Inspiring Australia and brings together a number of industry collaborators including high level executives and consultants from BP Australia, Google, Microsoft, NAB, Monash University, Social Ventures Australia, CPA Australia, GE, Chartered Accountants Australia & NZ and the Ai Group.

Without a doubt we are very much enjoyed the collaborative spirit of the past week and we’re looking forward to working on our science clubs with some the best education and business minds in the country. It’s going to be another awesome year 🙂