The B!G Idea was developed by award winning creativity and curriculum experts with decades of experience, to change how we educate our young people so they can access their creative minds without any cost barrier, feel empowered to problem solve in their own lives and learn the most in-demand skills in the world - creative thinking skills.
Our free programmes and workshops are delivered across 22 counties of Ireland to teach creativity, identified by the World Economic Forum's Future of Work as the top global skill.
After this programme, 98% of students told us they would feel confident to approach a challenge and find a solution with their creative thinking skills. Our inclusive programme is for all learning abilities and has connected 700+ industry professionals from 256 companies with 6,500+ students since 2021. We currently deliver the programmes to Transition Year, Leaving Cert Applied and Northern Ireland, as well as Youthreach and Community Training Centres for early school leavers. The cross-curricular nature of this unique programme allows for all learning abilities to gain skills, interact with industry leaders, connect learning from other subjects and gain confidence in tackling the biggest challenges in the world.
The programmes are accredited with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in Ireland since year one. We have won national and global awards and have secured an EU KA2 education project partnership with four other partners across Europe. We have grown from 500 students in 2021 to 4,000 this year and a waiting list of 10,000+ places. We have successfully bridged the gap between industry and education, developing our own IP in a bespoke digital platform. We are trialling a student/learner accelerator for the top team projects this year. Already, students and learners have developed hundreds of creative solutions for society.
Our Northern Ireland trial has given us a foothold in the UK and our goal now is to reach as many young people with this transformative programme as we can.
Teachers, mentors and programme partners from industry can all join the creative thinking community at thebigidea.ie, while those from outside Ireland who want their students to learn the most in-demand skill in the world can email us at hello@thebigidea.ie.
