Catalyst for Change
by Startacus Admin
The Liverpool startup, Oh This Way, that's providing alternative education and training for creative people, bridging the gap between education and industry.
Older generations like to complain that the young are lazy and brought up wrong, and that this generation and then this generation will be the cause of the world ceasing to spin. But then along come people like Robyn Dooley to prove them - once again - wrong.
At 17, Robyn dropped out of her BTEC course in fashion (bear with us), deciding that it just wasn’t for her. She considered the lack of connection between her education and the local industry all around her in Liverpool, and she made it her goal to sit down and have 150 coffees with people in Liverpool’s creative and digital industries, to better understand the landscape she was aiming to work in.
She learned that the disconnect between education and the actual industry meant that the employers thought there weren’t enough skilled graduates coming out of universities and the graduates had no idea about their local industry and thought the only way to get into tech was to work in London. This was where she saw her opportunity.
Catalyst is a 10-week programme run by Robyn’s startup, OH, that incorporates over 40 businesses in Liverpool’s tech scene who give their time and expertise to young people looking to get started in the industry.
Robyn is a facilitator for the one-day a week, 10-week sessions and the top names in the local industry provide the training to help people get their foot in the door.
Colleges and universities have their hands full teaching the skills and business practices needed to work in the tech industry, so having a startup like OH to bridge the gap between education and industry is a great idea, and we hope the education, opportunity, and networking it provides will continue to prove invaluable to those who otherwise might feel they have run into a brick wall.
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Published on: 18th March 2018
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