START Design Day at Morgan Stanley brings all four schools together for first time

The High School of Glasgow is preparing young people for the modern economy through START, an innovative design and entrepreneurship programme, that develops the skills identified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) as crucial for the future.

START pioneers innovative learning for school pupils by replicating the experience of participating in a startup incubator. It is delivered via a 25-week timetable of activities across five learning loops that focus on team working, problem spotting, customer engagement, prototyping, business development, branding and pitching. It aims to offer a new learning experience for Scottish schools, building five highly transferable skills that will benefit pupils regardless of their future ambitions: creative courage, empathy, positive failure, bias for action and learning through iteration. The programme culminates with a pitch presentation to industry experts in March with internship prizes on offer to the winning team.

Widening access to schools across Scotland has been a key commitment of START, and this session marked a huge milestone, with the programme now offered to 55 young people from four Glasgow schools - Knightswood Secondary, John Paul Academy, St Thomas Aquinas Secondary and The High School of Glasgow. The High School has ambitious plans to continue to expand it out to as many young people as possible across the country as it develops and is urging interested schools to get in touch.

In recent weeks, a Design Day was hosted at Morgan Stanley’s offices in Glasgow to help supercharge this session’s cohort. Pupils took part in workshops from Design Professor, Tom Inns, and enjoyed a Q&A with Scottish EDGE CEO, Evelyn McDonald, where they had the chance to understand more about early-stage business building and the realities and rewards of launching a start-up.

Evelyn McDonald, Scottish EDGE CEO, gave START a ringing endorsement on the day, saying:

I am so pleased that these kids are being exposed to entrepreneurial thinking, to looking at small businesses, to coming up with ideas and start thinking about the challenges that people undertake to bring these ideas to market. As well as the fact that potentially some of them may consider going into business at some point in the future. I think it’s a wonderful programme.”

Throughout the day, the ten teams were introduced to design thinking approaches to develop a range of ideas for their proposed start-ups. This involved mapping out initial business ideas, exploring a day in the life of the problem they are trying to solve and using De Bono’s approach to ideate information needs, challenges and solutions.

The feedback from pupils so far about being a part of the START programme is positive:

Jovita, current S6 pupil at St Thomas Aquinas, said:

I really do love business and enterprise and I was thinking in the future that me and my family could start a business ourselves and this will help us a lot to have a successful business.”

Arshad, current S6 pupil at John Paul Academy, said:

It’s just a good opportunity to be able to express my thoughts and be able to overcome challenges in my community which is what my group is trying to do.”

Molly, current S6 pupil at Knightswood Academy, said:

[We’ve been] working with groups and we’ve been talking to other schools which has been very insightful in how we can improve our overall business idea.”

Amy, current S6 pupil at St Thomas Aquinas, said:

I quite like it as it’s more of a student led programme rather than being fed information by teachers. I enjoy working with peers and teachers to design something of our own.”

Peer-to-peer learning is an important aspect of START, and in addition to this, pupils also had access to Morgan Stanley employees and recent Design graduates from Strathclyde University and Imperial College London’s Dyson School of Design Engineering, providing valuable advice and practical insights from people at the cutting edge of industry.

START’s problem-based approach means that there is no ceiling to what pupils can achieve on the programme. It’s not about learning a syllabus or passing a test, but about pupils gaining a problem-solving toolkit that allows them to follow their curiosity and make their startups the best they can be. In the process, pupils gain skills that will help them to achieve their future goals in education and the world of work.

Commenting, Mr Philip Ford, Director of Innovation and Head of Sixth Form, who founded START at the High School, said:

With many leading commentators highlighting the importance of developing design thinking and entrepreneurial skills in schools, START has been created at The High School of Glasgow to offer a programme delivering this for 17 and 18 year olds across Glasgow and beyond. It offers precisely the sort of interdisciplinary projects advocated by the Review of Scottish Qualifications by Professor Louise Hayward, and fosters the skills identified as crucial to the future economy by reports from major organisations such as the OECD and the WEF.

Capacities such as resilience, creativity, curiosity, analytical thinking and empathy will benefit all young people, regardless of their future aspirations. And by engaging young people in early-stage business building, START also seeks to contribute to the pipeline of skilled entrepreneurial talent within the Scottish startup ecosystem.

The Design Day hosted by Morgan Stanley was a really exciting event. It was inspiring to get all the schools under one roof and witness the energy and enthusiasm in the room from the young people involved. Special thanks go to the individuals who helped to make the day possible and who gave of their time to make this a memorable event. I’m intrigued to see what this year’s cohort create!”

The programme began in The High School of Glasgow within the Flexible Learning Area of The John Shaw Science Wing with 20 pupils in 2022 and has scaled to ten teams of pupils from four schools across Glasgow in 2024, creating opportunities for many young people.

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Should you wish to learn more about START or if you’d like to get in touch about becoming a partner school or business, please visit: https://www.highschoolofglasgow.co.uk/start and contact START@HSOG.co.uk.