Thinkspace Pioneers hunt for the next teenage Mark Zuckerberg

The search for the up coming Mark Zuckerberg or digital Richard Branson is on, and it’s a group of youngsters carrying out the looking.

Pioneers, the new off-shoot venture from coding non-profit Thinkspace, is hunting for the subsequent generation of entrepreneurial app developers – a hand-picked bunch of talented teenagers given entry to like minds, venture capitalists and mentoring backers. At least that’s the plan.

“We think that the work of talented students need to be cherished and recognised, which is why we formed Pioneers,” explained Thinkspace’s sixteen-yr-outdated co-founder James Anderson speaking to the Guardian. “What we’re hunting for is far more than just coding skills and expertise. We’re seeking for the subsequent Mark Zuckerberg or Richard Branson – they have to be critical, but exclusive and modern with the entrepreneurial spirit.”

Wheat from the chaff

Launching right now, Thinkspace Pioneers will be opened up to applicants aged 13-18 with tasks spanning apps, games and sites – anything at all that demonstrates promise in the digital area.

The application method is totally free, and any individual can apply, but will not be simple, as Anderson says “they will only have 400 characters or much less to get their proposal across, so we’re hoping the ideal and brightest will actually be able to sparkle and standout”.

The choice of applicants to be place through to the incubator-like undertaking falls to Belfast-based mostly Jordan Earle, director of the Pioneers venture for Thinkspace. His job is to weed out the wheat from the chaff as “only a handful will make it though the application process.”

“What I want to be in a position to see is that they have a passion for engineering,” mentioned Earle. “I genuinely hope we can inspire and mould the following generation of digital thinkers, makers and doers.”

“It’s incredibly crucial that youthful people are offered as several possibilities as possible these days so they can discover their complete possible,” he stated.

These that do make it by means of, notified inside of 72 hours of application, will be invited to consider element in weekly or bi-weekly networking and discussion opportunities, each on-line utilizing Google+ Hangouts and in a central, likely London, area. They will also be provided access to Thinkspace’s “Social” coding and growth-focussed social network, which launched in closed beta earlier in the 12 months for colleges, teachers and pupils.

To help the Pioneers task, Thinkspace is seeking for backing to the tune of around £50,000 or partnerships from the big names in tech, Microsoft and Google integrated. It has certainly had accomplishment in that department in the previous year, with endorsements from Twitter’s chief executive Dick Costolo, Google’s senior vice president of social Vic Gundotra, Microsoft’s United kingdom director of training Steve Beswick, Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak and even Stephen Fry to identify but a couple of.

‘Make a genuine difference to the lives of students’

Thinkspace was initially launched in September this 12 months, aiming to place a Google headquarters-design spaces filled with contemporary computer systems, minimalist furniture and bright white walls inside of schools in Britain to inspire young children to understand to code in a creative, non-college-like setting.

“We want to make a genuine big difference to the lives of college students in the Uk and globally, and Pioneers is the up coming stage in that dream,” stated Anderson.

• In November, a Kickstarter task referred to as Kano launched to help kids find out to code utilizing the Raspberry Pi

Thinkspace Pioneers hunt for the next teenage Mark Zuckerberg