blog Wetskills-UK 24 April – by Chrysoula Papacharalampou & Inge Muhlig (supervisors Wetskills-UK 2017)
Thursday 30th of March was the start of the very first edition of Wetskills-UK!: The first day of two weeks of hard work, out-of-your-comfort-zone, out-of-the-box-thinking and also a lot of fun.
The days were filled with writing a plan of action, discussions of ways to tackle the questions, learning how to make (a good) poster, pitch and teambuilding activities. It was a real pleasure to watch all participants working together in multidisciplinary & multicultural groups, complement each other and grow in their out-of-the-box process.
The results of this Wetskills edition were presented during the second day of the 18th IWA-UK YWP conference. Every team gave a pitch of their solution of their water challenge. Four pitches were delivered:
- Team 1: “Out of the Box” Up on the Dike (Water Authority of Delfland)
- Team 2: A Water Approved Bath, Creating Resilience for the City of Bath (Water Innovation & Research Centre of the University of Bath)
- Team 3: Let the knowledge Flow, Surfacing Europe’s Water Professionals (European Water Traineeship)
- Team 4: 365 days to engaged water citizens, a year engagement programme to make Westland Waterproof (Municipality of Westland)
All teams performed a great pitch! After each pitch, there was an opportunity for questions from both the jury and the audience. The posters were also presented at the poster market of the conference, after the pitch session. The jury then gathered to discuss the results and to choose the winning team. The winning team was announced during the gala dinner that night: team 4 for the project ‘365 Days to Engaged Water Citizens’.
As supervisors and co-organisers of this event, we look back at a wonderful time with a great group of talented, young water professionals, new friends, newly gained knowledge and experiences. All of it will be useful in our future career and personal development. We enjoyed meeting people from different countries and different (professional) backgrounds, loved to supervise a group of lovely young professionals who challenged us to deliver our best while giving workshops and organising all the details of such a demanding event!
