VIEWS & OPINION


Changing the lives of the next generation of raw talent through music education


Comment by SAHANA GEROMBE, founder and director of the World Heart Beat Music Academy


The importance of being a female STEM ambassador


Comment by VICTORIA SHEPHERD, Service Excellence Manager, Arqiva


Music has the power “to extend the art of the possible”. That has always been my vision and the vision that I carried with me when I set up World Heart Beat Music Academy fifteen years ago. Too often children growing up with dreams are faced with barriers that


they cannot control, but at World Heart Beat we try to eliminate these obstacles by supplying students from all backgrounds and abilities with the chance to learn and explore music. “We are all born with music in us. We will never know how many millions


of people in the world possess musical talent but haven’t had the environment to develop it. “Raw talent first needs identifying, then to be offered the chance to


emerge. It needs to be nurtured with inspiration and aspiration and given the time and space to blossom. Our open door means that literally any child has the opportunity” At our beating heart is a passionate belief that music can transform lives,


transcend barriers and embrace possibilities. Our motto, an aphorism by Sri Chinmoy sums up our aspirations: “We are truly unlimited if only we dare to try.” Music education has been proven to enhance a child’s ability to acquire


creative skills, including verbal intelligence, self-expression and collaboration, which translates into better results. Music is expansive and helps you expand your horizons. It teaches you to trust yourself, to become self- confident, to take risks, and also to use initiative. There is actually no problem that can’t be solved without a creative solution – or all problems can be solved with a creative solution and music develops this capacity. It’s important because it’s about community, sharing and communication in a very human and natural way. Musicians are connected, and they feel like a family and that is very important for children and young people growing up in an increasingly isolated and computer-based society. Music teaches children how to respect, and value not only themselves but


all those who we share the same planet earth as. You can engage with music, and play, whatever your level and it’s about developing the whole person. It gives you the freedom that no-one can take away from you and goes beyond the limitations that society puts on people. When a student who might struggle at school discovers that they can excel


in music, it opens up doors to their future prospects. Many of our students go on to succeed at all levels, increasingly winning places to study at world- leading establishments such as the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music, Cambridge University, Trinity Laban and Berklee College USA to name a few. Ultimately, music can change an individual’s outlook on life – as one


student put it to me: “At World Heart Beat we have music. People without it have nothing to do and nowhere to go, so they just spend their time on the streets.” These are the kind of comments that spur me on and make all of our efforts worthwhile. As we look to the future, we will soon be expanding into Embassy Gardens


in 2019, part of EcoWorld Ballymore’s multi-billion-pound regeneration project in London’s Nine Elms. We are still welcoming donations after reaching a quarter of our £2 million target.


22 www.education-today.co.uk


I got involved in the STEM ambassador programme shortly after I finished my engineering apprenticeship at Arqiva – primarily as a way to inspire young people to get involved in the field. My own route into engineering was far from traditional. I didn’t do


any STEM subjects at school and sort of fell into the apprenticeship at Arqiva. I knew I wanted to work in technology and that an apprenticeship approach would be much better suited to my style of learning, but at the time my school was much more interested in pushing its students towards university. In the end, it was a member of my family who pointed me towards Arqiva’s scheme. I’d love to see schools pushing more alternative career


routes/vocational subjects – even if just via after-school clubs – but until this happens it is the job of STEM ambassadors like me to grow awareness of both. Despite the ongoing consumerisation of technology, there is still a


perception that subjects like science, technology, engineering and maths are boring. I see this when talking to my younger family members. My role as a STEM ambassador is to dispel this perception – to show kids the exciting, relevant side of these subjects. I’ll always remember an event we held for World Science Day a few years ago. We brought TV cameras, screens and a satellite truck to the Winchester Science Centre and set up a demonstration where kids could see themselves in real-time on one screen and then delayed on the other as the signal bounced up to the satellite and down again. When they realised they had effectively been to space and back their faces were an absolute picture. It was brilliant to get them excited about how TV actually works. Another important part of being a STEM ambassador is showing


young girls in particular that engineering is a viable path for them. It is still a very male-dominated industry and has been seen as somewhat of a ‘boys club’. We need to change that, and a big part of it is pushing out female role models that girls can relate to and emulate – that make them think “if they can do it so can I.” I was quite intimidated by the industry when I first started – asking


myself why there aren’t any women around me. Was it because they couldn’t do the job? Did that mean I couldn’t? It helped that I have always been involved in other male-heavy environments such as sports so was relatively used to it. But not everyone will have that background and it can take a lot of bravery when you start out if you have no one to follow. There are senior women who are becoming more visible in the


industry, but we still have a way to go. I’m also definitely seeing more of an openness to women in engineering, and female colleagues have told me that their experience of entering the industry has been markedly different to the one I had 10 years ago. Boys or girls, we need to do all we can to get the younger


generation interested in the engineering industry or we risk losing the traditional skillsets that fundamentally underpin it. Today’s workforce will have no one to teach their skills to – and that would be hugely serious for all of us.


July/August 2018


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