Students given Royal approval

The Duke has presided over the creation of a new awards scheme that aims to burnish the digital skills and employability of young people in the UK.

The new project is entitled Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards (iDEA) with the format based on the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. The award was launched at the University of Huddersfield, where Prince Andrew is Chancellor.

The Duke said: “We are making no apology for borrowing my father’s intellectual property because it is a tool that works.

“We can deliver a similar sort of activity stream but in a digital form, so we are going to have bronze, silver and gold badges.”

Westborough High School was quick to support the award.

Its team leader for enterprise and ethics, Lukman Patel, spoke at the launch event and described the introduction of the scheme as a massive success.

Teachers had found that the bite-sized modules were very flexible and could be used for classroom session and as homework tasks, but iDEA had also been a great success as lunchtime and after-school activities.

The launch event was attended by representatives of a wide of regional schools, and Mr Patel urged them to embrace iDEA. He said: “I feel this will give our young people a competitive advantage in the labour market and turn Kirklees into the digital hub of the nation.”

His pupils Dawud Sakha, Abdullah Asif and Aasim Hussain were presented with specially-created certificates marking their pioneering success in earning iDEA bronze awards.

The badges are described as “bite-sized challenges that help teach digital and enterprise skills”.