I had the pleasure of meeting 3 young men who were given the chance to make, develop and take away with them the skill of website development and their own WordPress websites yesterday using the YoungVoice way of learning.
They are 3 young men who are part of the Lofty Heights loft clearance service and Olive, the founder, wanted to give them more than just work and income, but skills and personal development. They were handed to me at 9am with no skills in websites, adding pages or even having ever hit the publish button on any platform before. By 3pm they had not only set up a Gmail email account but purchased the domain from the registry themselves on the YoungVoice hosting account, installed WordPress on the domain, forwarded emails and then made their own websites from nothing at all to something glorious.
The key moment was when they were able to install the Colorway Theme and then see their website, half an hour after starting on it, looking like a professional and business class website. They have been shown WordPress in such a way that they can adapt, change and amend the websites ongoing for as long as they choose to keep updating them. They have been shown “how and why”, not just “how to” and they can do this from any PC on the Internet. I also showed them why they need to consider SEO and how it will lead to work for them. We also did ‘adding a CV’ as a download and how they can change the website for the person they may be wanting to connect with that week!
We did not cover blogging as they didn’t have any content, but they do have the skills to add this and show it on the website should they wish to.
Also, with it being live, I can re-visit their website watching their development and so can you!
I really enjoyed the day and giving my understanding to three others, with real gratitude and thanks is very warming. I unfolded the elements and made sure the impacting moments were correctly delivered to keep their motivation and interest so they were excited and surprised at what they had achieved. The way the project runs means that I made sure I listened to the individual needs of the student and gave them something to last, giving R.O.I. for Olive and her requirement for personal development.
More young people should be given the chance to experience the empowerment of their own website to show themselves off. Maybe you can copy the link for this post and email to someone who is involved with young people that would get a lot out of this type of personal development?
https://www.andyproctor.co.uk/one-day-wordpress/
Contact us for more information and check out the YoungVoice website and our YouTube channel