Over the last 15 months, we have been actively working to engage young people in the repair and reuse movement. Recognising the importance of involving future generations, we have formed some great partnerships with FE colleges across Wales. This has given us the opportunity to get involved with awareness raising activities and to run workshops at the colleges for groups of young people. This work has formed part of a project funded by WCVA.
In October 2024, one of our Project Coordinators ran a series of workshops for students at Pembrokeshire College. The workshops explored the circular economy, where repair fits into it and how young people can engage with the repair movement. The focus was upon small actions that we can each take that will make a big difference when combined. There were videos, discussions and activities in small groups, giving everyone the opportunity to reflect and share their ideas. 75 students (and 9 tutors) took part in the workshops, from a range of courses including performing arts, construction, travel and tourism and electrical and plumbing. As a result, a group of young people have pledged to take an active role in running a repair cafe at the college, with the aim of holding their first event during 2025.
We then repeated the workshops at two of the Coleg y Cymoedd sites. In December 2024, we engaged with 74 students (construction, IT, catering and barbering) and 5 tutors at the Nantgarw campus, and in January 2025, we visited the Ystrad Mynach Campus, where we delivered the workshops to 43 students and 3 tutors from a range of courses, including catering and IT.
We have also taken part in awareness raising events with Coleg Gwent, Coleg y Cymoedd and NPTC Group of Colleges and we have held a number of conversations with tutors at various other colleges across Wales, initiating discussions around the possibility of bringing repair into the colleges in the future. We will continue to strengthen and deepen our partnerships with colleges across Wales with the aim of student-led repair activities being held, which will expose an even greater number of young people to the benefits of repair, hopefully inspiring them to develop their own fixing skills.
