Whatever your dreams or ambitions there will be something to inspire you at Skills West Midlands. The event is the place to try out your future and get hands on with the exciting demonstrations. Get a makeover finding out about careers in beauty therapy, fix a car finding out about a career in motor mechanics, blow your top finding out about careers in chemistry. Wherever you want to go in the future, find your route at Skills West Midlands.
Click here to access the Group Resource Area
Opening Times
Wednesday 21 March 20129.30am – 3pm and 5pm - 7pm
Thursday 22 March 2012
9.30am – 3pm
You can visit Skills West Midlands at any time. With so much to see we offer special staggered slots for big groups so everyone gets a chance to try the interactive features. We recommend visiting the event for approximately two hours.
Get inspired with great interaction 
Skills West Midlands has Have a Go areas, a University Street, college demonstrations, employers and much more. Interactivity
Organisations at Skills West Midlands will showcase lots of exciting activities, career paths, training opportunities and will have some fantastic prizes up for grabs.Have a Go areas give you a chance to try different skills and activities.
Have a Go at Hospitality & Retail with Babcock Training.
Identify foods by putting your hand in the mystery boxes then test your knowledge about alcohol - how many units of alcohol are in certain drinks? What is the percentage and when can you buy a drink?
Have a Go at Fashion & Textiles and Construction with Burton & South Derbyshire College
Design your own outfit using paper cuttings with students and staff. Try the 5 Nail Challenge and see whether you could build a future in construction.
Have a Go at Motor Mechanics with City College Birmingham
Race your mates in the car simulator and compete for the fastest lap and your chance to win a Hypersonic Experience at Silverstone, finding out about courses and careers in the motor vehicle industry.
Have a Go at Construction, Hair & Beauty, Catering or Media with South Birmingham College
Try a range of activities including a taste test, a free mini manicure and animation workshops.
Have a Go at Floristry with South Staffordshire College
With face painting, hair braiding, go karting and Wii games this stand will have loads to do including floristry!
What are exhibitors doing on their stands?
If you want to find out what Inspire Futures have on offer go and find out and paint a ceramic mug and you’ll have a reminder of your time at Skills West Midlands.
Hop over to the Archway Academy stand and try their interactive games to win Easter egg prizes!
The Army have a small tank for you to explore along with weapons demos and loads of information about the huge range of careers on offer in the services. Find out about careers in engineering careers and pathways with Aston University Engineering Academy (AUEA), handle the interactive models and chat to engineers.
Try augmented reality with Burton and South Derbyshire College – use symbols in front of the computer camera and watch what 3D image pops up on the monitor. Other activities include ‘icing cupcakes’ (and eating them afterwards!).
Visit the Careersinracing stand to try out a new Wii Jockey game where students can race against each other. If you don’t find the Wii game appealing they will also have the mechanical racehorse with them!
Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce (CWCC) are part of ENTREXplorer and they’ll have a number of laptops available for you to take part in the trial version of this new European game. You’ll be part of the testing process and can suggest areas where it could be improved.
Never sure what to wear? for top style advice visit Derby College who will share tips for dressing your body shape and offer style and colour analysis services to enable you to grow in confidence and accentuate the positives of your body.
Hereward College will be creating a collage with photos taken at the event which will be titled 'They are our Future' and posted on their official blog www.herewardcollege.blogspot.com. You’ll also have a chance to fill in their graffiti wall, dress mannequins with a variety of pieces of clothing, test yourself in the fastest typer competition.
What’s your co-ordination like – can you operate a robotic arm with accuracy? Find out with LEMA, they’ll have experts on hand to answer your questions around about programme and engineering employment opportunities and lots of goodies to share!
If you want to see what you will look like when you retire visit University College Birmingham and their theatrical make-up demonstrations of special effects and ageing looks. You can test your fitness and find out about a sporting career with the one minute press up and sit up fitness tests and try coordination, flexibility and balance exercises.
Loads of the companies will be there wanting you to get involved in their demonstrations and activities. Many of them are running competitions so you can have fun and try to win some great prizes.
Information, Advice and Guidance
Skills West Midlands fits really well with the latest IAG strategy, so make your time out of the classroom count:
Your students will get
As a teacher you will
Who's There?
Click here to see the full list of 2011 exhibitors
All activities and exhibitors are subject to change and some interactive features will vary and only be offered during specific sessions.
