Improving Delivery of Youth Services in Remote Locations

10/09/2008

Carmarthenshire County Council is one of the largest and most diverse employers in South West Wales, employing over 9000 employees who provide services across a rural county to a population of around 170,000.  It provides a range of services including education, planning, transport and streetscene, social services and public safety.

The Challenge

Carmarthenshire County Council is committed to providing an education service which will ensure equal access to high quality educational opportunities for all children, young people and adults, thus enabling the achievement of their full potential.  To meet this commitment, it wanted to provide young people across the county between the ages of 14 to 25 years with the opportunity to enhance their IT and multimedia skills.  This would also enable the council to meet statutory requirements for the provision of informal learning opportunities as part of the Welsh Assembly’s National Youth Service Strategy for Wales and young people’s ten Entitlements.

To achieve this, Carmarthenshire County Council was equipping a purpose-built bus with computers and multimedia software that would provide young people in remote locations with access to the latest technology to learn new skills.  Key to the success of the project would be the ability to have access to high speed broadband regardless of location.  

The Solution

As the UK’s leading provider of mobile data, voice and video solutions using satellite and wireless, Excelerate Technology was asked to help.  It installed a 1.2 metre satellite platform that would connect to the ten onboard Apple Mac computers to provide access to high-speed broadband within four minutes of arriving at any location across the region. According to Imogen Mills of Carmarthern County Council:  “In the first year alone, the year the mobile Multi Media bus worked with 532 young people across Carmarthenshire and transformed the provision of youth service services by delivering increased access to high-speed broadband to rural communities across the county. The ability of mobile youth workers to park up in hard to reach areas and deliver high quality activities has meant that outreach provision in rural areas is now stronger than ever.” The computers provide young people with ready access to the internet to research information and share files created onboard the bus.  They enhance the learning experience on a wide range of creative applications including Stop Frame Animation, Music Technology, Digital Photo Manipulation and Digital Film Editing. 

The Multi Media bus is also used in schools across the region to support the delivery of IT and Media Studies for both GCSE and AS Levels as well as providing taster sessions for Art.   Staff also have access to email when mobile enabling them to remain in contact with colleagues regardless of location. “Excelerate Technology has provided us with instant access to fast and reliable broadband connections,” continued Imogen Mills.  “This has played an important role in retaining the engagement of young people involved in the wide range of learning projects that can now be delived using our Multi Media bus.” 

The vehicle offers Carmarthenshire County Council the flexibility to be used in a wide range of other applications.  It has already been used to provide internet facilities as backup for Carmarthen Library when it closed for refurbishment and is equipped with the technologies that enable it to be used by the emergency services as a potential command and control vehicle. The satellite network is managed by Excelerate Technology in real-time from a Network Operations Centre (NOC) based at its headquarters at St Mellons, Cardiff.  The performance of the network is monitored to ensure that available bandwidth meets current requirements with additional bandwidth instantly available to meet demand.