We've already written about the use of playground equipment as a means of pumping fresh water for African villages, and now a British student at Coventry University has come up with a way to use see-saws to generate power.

Daniel Sheridan, a student in consumer product design, won three separate awards amounting to GBP 5,500 earlier this year for his see-saw design, which can create enough electricity to power a classroom by capturing the energy generated when children play on it. It would take just five to 10 minutes of play on the see-saw to light a classroom for a few hours, BBC News reported, though the energy gets transferred to an electrical storage unit via underground cable, so it would be up to the school to decide how the power is used. Sheridan was inspired by a volunteer project he worked on in Kenya last summer that included building a school. "The current need for electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa is staggering," he explains. "Without power, development is extremely difficult. The potential market for this product is huge and the design could be of benefit to numerous communities in Africa and beyond."

Sheridan's plan includes recruiting the local community to build part of the device and also install it, thereby creating involvement and reducing logistical costs. Late last month he reportedly left for a village near Jinja, Uganda, to test and finalize the prototype using locally derived parts. Alternative energy entrepreneurs: what are you waiting for? This one's for you! ;-) (Related: Playing for water and Hippo water roller.)

Website: www.coventry.ac.uk/cu/d/199/a/6110
Contact: danielsheridan@yahoo.co.uk

Spotted by: RK

Back in 2006 we wrote about Dutch Postbank's campaign to facilitate the efforts of kidpreneurs, and now a Florida-based company is taking the notion a step further by offering mini-franchises for kids.

Founded last year, Florida-based FranChild enables kids ages 5 to 15 to go way beyond lemonade stands and operate a "grownup-style" business instead. Parents and kids begin by picking a product to sell: beeswax candles, organic soap, jewellery or apparel. The initial startup cost is just USD 25, which gets the child a FranChild Company Certificate to acknowledge his or her business launch; business cards ready to print from FranChild's ready-made templates; how-to instructions for marketing and selling products; access to the My First Franchise Resource Center, a USD 75,000 marketing system for creating customized packaging products; discount pricing on inventory and supplies; and access to newsletters, updates and a members-only forum. For an extra USD 2 per month, kids can also get their own business webpage. Kids then order their inventory and create their business cards and packaging, and they're ready to start selling. In addition to extra spending money (which can be considerable, according to the testimonials), FranChild gives kids valuable business and life lessons, and it provides an educational context in which parents and kids can spend time together.

FranChild's founders stress that the time commitment is small for both kids and parents, though overscheduled families may still want to think twice before stretching those schedules even further. Nor should earnings be the primary motivation, FranChild warns. Far be it from us to promote child labour; on the other hand, could be a fun way to while away the time during those long summer months! FranChild operates only in the US—one to bring to a country near you?

Website: www.franchild.com
Contact: info@franchild.com

Spotted by: Bill McMahon

While you may never be too old to learn, when it comes to gadgets, you can never be too young to teach. A Dutch initiative is taking advantage of kids’ innate cell phone proficiency by training them as ‘phone coaches’ and getting them to transfer their skills to older users.

Bellendoejezo—which roughly translates to “this is how you make a call”—organizes cell phone workshops that cover topics such as using predictive text, creating contact groups, enabling Bluetooth and exploring mobile internet. Not all of the students’ students are equally advanced, though, so sometimes they’ll stick to the basics, like locking a phone’s keyboard, sending a text message and using voicemail.

A group of VMBO students (preparatory middle-level vocational education for students aged 12–16) was trained to work as phone coaches. The program’s goal is to improve their social skills and self-esteem, and give them access to corporate environments they might otherwise not be exposed to. Bellendoejezo is aimed at the corporate market, and charges up to EUR 50 per person for 60-minute workshops. Clients so far have included law firms, banks and an energy company. (Related: Teaching people to use their feature-rich phones.)

Seems like a relatively easy to launch (non-profit) project that benefits everyone involved. One to copy to other parts of the world? Students with an entrepreneurial bent, meanwhile—those that have already been charging their parents for computer and phone tutorials—will no doubt spot the business opportunity here and start up their own coaching services ;-)

Website: www.bellendoejezo.com
Contact: bellendoejezo@live.nl

It's long been known that job experience can rival (or even surpass) formal education for imparting important skills, and recently the UK officially recognized that fact by allowing McDonald's to grant its own qualification to employees.

The fast-food giant is one of just three employers given such power by the UK's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in January—the others were Flybe and Network Rail—and that month it began piloting a Level 3 'Basic Shift Managers' course for employees that can count toward A-levels or advanced diplomas. The programme, which will be broken into credits, covers everything McDonald's managers need to know for the day-to-day running of a McDonald's restaurant, from basic operational requirements to finance, marketing and HR.

University admissions tutors have reportedly balked at the new program, but ultimately the hope is that courses like it will create a better-skilled workforce. "It is going to be a tough course, but once you have got a qualification in management you can probably go anywhere," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told GMTV. "I think that is the important thing, companies prepared to train people up which they weren't doing before, in the way that we want them to do, in a far greater number, so that people have the qualifications for the future." The government hopes other employers will follow suit. One for other chains to emulate?

Website: www.mcdcareers.co.uk
Contact: mcdcareers@uk.mcd.com

Spotted by: Junaid Kazi

Many organizations donate books of various kinds to developing countries, usually through a few collection centres and a small set of volunteers or employees. A new UK-based group, on the other hand, mobilizes teams of volunteer university students nationwide.

READ International (short for Realizing Education, Achieving Development) has established 11 student-led Book Projects throughout the UK to improve access to education across the world and increase youth participation in the global community. Originally launched in 2003 as "The Tanzania Book Project" by a group of university students, it had already sent 50,000 books and materials to Tanzania secondary schools by 2005. Beginning in 2006, however, the group registered officially as a national charity, won the support of five universities, and now works through a community of student-run READ Book Projects to collect disused, high-quality Key Stage 3 and GCSE textbooks from UK secondary schools.

Student volunteers also give presentations to promote student volunteering, young social enterprise, recycling and global citizenship, and are responsible for fund-raising towards READ Book Project costs through such means as cake sales, sponsored events and local corporate support. Ultimately, the student teams travel to Tanzania to distribute the books. The result: READ Book Projects have donated 148,000 textbooks to 140 Tanzanian secondary schools and five regional libraries. By the end of the 2007-8 academic year, READ aims to deliver 247,500 textbooks to Tanzania through its 11 university projects, which it plans to increase to 20 in the next year and to 27 by 2009-10, for a total of 1.3 million books kept out of UK landfills and put to good use instead.

The group's founders explain: "We have identified our core strength—our relationship with British students. The opportunity to run, rather than work for, a national organization is our success. We see them as leaders, not volunteers. Over the next three years, we will position READ International to capitalize on this unique offering." READ International was named the Best New Charity in the 2007 UK Charity Times Awards, and is planning sister projects in Ecuador, Ghana and Zambia. For anyone involved in projects for the social good, putting student energy and philanthropy to work makes great sense for everyone involved. A model to emulate!

Website: www.readinternational.org.uk
Contact: info@readinternational.org.uk

Spotted by: Shannon Hopkins