Carlisle Hack Day planned to help young jobseekers

Last updated at 19:32, Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Young people in Carlisle are being given the opportunity to tack part in developing apps and digital solutions to the problems they face in finding jobs.

As part of today's Superfast Carlisle conference a planning meeting was held to discuss organising a Hack Day in which interenet and app developers from Cumbria University and across Carlisle will work with young people on ideas and try to build real, working prototypes (or models) over the course of the day.

Today representatives from organisations such as Inspira, the city council, the Youth Zone and housing organisaitons and some developers drew up a list of problems faced by young job seekers.

They included: job websites being boring and inaccessible to young people; lack of confidence at interviews; transport issues and CV writing.

Potential solutions included developing a website or app where mentors from local businesses could check and rate application letters and CVs.

Gavin Capstick, of Carlisle City Council, young people would be invited to have their say and add to the list ahead of a Hack Day in October.

The session was facilitated by Lucy Watt, of FurtureGov, who has organised a number of Hack Days including one which attracted support from Google.

More details here