Join expert mentors as they teach a mix of coding, design and electronics to ages 8+, using awesome emerging technology like 3D printers and laser cutters.

This is way more than just a coding club.

At MakerClub, children build products from scratch, learning real manufacturing techniques to better understand the world around them.

Find out more information on joining by clicking here OR if you’d like to come down and see the club in action, feel free to pop in at any of our drop-in sessions.

MakerClub has opened in 5 UK cities and continues to grow, with a further 30 planned for the next 18 months. The company was named as one of the UK’s most creative of 2016 by the awarding body, Creative England.

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Go beyond coding, as they learn to use emerging technologies like 3D printing, the Internet of Things and laser cutters, to build robots, design videogames and create their own products from scratch.

Fresh from being named as one of the most creative companies in the UK by Creative England, MakerClub has been featured in The Times, Telegraph, Wired, BBC and TechCrunch – it’s simply the best regular technology clubs for under 16’s in the country.

Makerclub runs after-school clubs in Brighton (our hometown!), Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cambridge and now London.

The weekly sessions run from 5.30pm to 7pm at Makerversity, London’s most prestigious space for young makers and designers from Nov 2nd and every Wednesday after.

With amazing equipment on hand, expert tutors and all materials included, membership costs £69 for a month (one session a week), which includes their own laser cut membership card.

To celebrate, we’re offering 5 memberships at a 50% discount for the first month! With only 10 places available, you better be quick!

You can cancel your membership at any time and if you’d like to know anything else, check the website, or email mia AT makerclub.org.

Use the code robotdiscount when subscribing.

Click here for more details

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If you would like your child to build or design something similar, why not get one of our MakerClub kits, or check if you have a MakerClub workshop session happening near you

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It may be small in stature but it’s always been able to compete with the goliaths when it comes to breeding creativity and new ideas.

Makerspaces and Fablabs are the embodiment of that pioneering spirit, and the brilliant thing is, they’re springing up all over the city!

If you are unfamiliar with these terms, a ‘Makerspace’ or ‘Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab)’, are basically, communal workshop spaces.

They contain tools, workbenches and high-tech manufacturing machines, like laser cutters and 3D printers.

Imagine them like a larger, more organised version of the classic British inventors shed at the bottom of the garden, but for the whole community!

They are places for play, innovation, creativity, education and socialising, and have been proven to boost local economies and encourage entrepreneurship.

In short, they are amazing.

Makerspaces act like accelerators for the imagination, blossoming new opportunities through a shared loved of building cool stuff with cool people.

At last count, there were 97 in the UK (Nesta), situated in Universities, converted lockups, abandoned buildings and even former banks!

So far we have 3 spaces in Brighton, but it’s growing and with it, the chance to build a better city…

In a scheme that feels like a natural progression from the Digital Eagles and Code Playground campaigns, Barclays is slowly turning its recently shut branches, into fully fledged makerspaces, all over the UK.

And one of the first to open is in Brighton – lucky old us! Set up for young businesses as well as makers, anyone can pop in between 9am and 5pm to see it in action and get involved.  

The original Brighton space with over 100 designers, makers and tinkerers. Local residents from all kinds of backgrounds, share experience and work on all kinds of brilliant projects.

Awesome ones include, a motorised robotic elephant (seriously!) and ‘genetic standing lamps’ that can be programmed to use your DNA sample as a basis for their colour!  

Build Brighton has regular open days and anyone can become a member and start train on the equipment.  

This one isn’t open to the public quite yet, but situated on a former barracks site, it’s home to 13 young manufacturing startups that are testing it before a more permanent space in built in a couple of years time.

With electric motorbikes, 3D printed learning kits, edible insect chocolate bars and handmade wooden cameras!

It’s a crazy place to visit, where you can feel the ideas bubbling from every nook and cranny!   

Started as a 6-month pilot project in April – September 2015, we launched a makerspace just for young people that was a phenomenal success.   

We believe that these spaces should be accessible to all age groups, the ‘maker mentality’ is just as valid for young people and spaces like this represent the ultimate playground for an inquisitive child’s vast potential.

We’re working with Barclay’s EagleLab’s to run a new kind of weekly after school club for ages 10 to 16, to encourage the next generation of young inventors.

You can check out more about that here.

For a city in the middle of a digital transformation, maker spaces represent an opportunity to connect communities, explore ideas and develop new ways to harness the potential for cross-curricular innovation.

They are set to become a key part of the city’s infrastructure and another output for Brighton’s creative business culture

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How sticky tape and plasticine are making robotics fun #WIREDNG http://t.co/Dnxs5FQ1go pic.twitter.com/AACPJDI0xq

— Wired UK (@WiredUK) October 17, 2015

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At MakerClub we’ve been gearing up for our exciting O2 Think Big Workshops which will give young people £300 funding and expert advice to kickstart a community project of their own. To mark the occasion of the free workshops this weekend, we’ve put together a list of 5 community groups who have caught our eye around Brighton – big respect to these guys for all the great work they’re doing! Maybe this might give some of our O2 Think Big participants some food for thought…

Adventure Unlimited        

A company that commits itself to transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people through outdoor education and adventure, Adventure Unlimited works with over 6000 young people every year. They place a real emphasis on subsidised rates for the less well-off, as well as one to one assistance for people with special needs.

New Heights is a scheme run weekly at Phoenix by Adventure Unlimited, giving young people the opportunity to try out activities like archery, climbing and bushcraft, all free of charge! Once again the group welcomes young people with disabilities and special needs to all these activities

Albion in the Community    

Albion in the Community is the charitable arm of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. They aim to bring the community together through their variety of programmes – from football and sports to health and wellbeing, from education and qualifications, to disability and social inclusion.

A key principle of the group is making sport accessible to everyone, no matter their age or ability. To achieve this, for example,  they run a huge range of disabled football clubs across Sussex, including those for deaf and PowerChair football, as well initiatives focused on reintroducing sport and exercise into the lives of the elderly.

Amaze Brighton             

Amaze Brighton is a charity that offers information, advice and support to families of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities in Brighton and Hove, as well as parent carers. Since their beginnings in 1997, Amaze have been fundraising and putting on fantastic free events for young people, alongside their everyday support.

The next few months alone will see autism friendly film screenings at Duke of York’s cinema, and free archery and kayaking courses for 11-24s, to name but a few things this fantastic group have planned!

LGBT Switchboard           

There is no group that embodies the diversity and openness of Brighton more perfectly than the LGBT Switchboard. Switchboard proactively reaches out to excluded and marginalised sections of the LGBT communities, ensuring that they have support and someone to talk to in times of difficulty.

A company and charity that recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, the Switchboard has lost none of its passion for the Brighton community. To mark the landmark the group have challenged 40 business to each raise £400 for their charity – going towards providing emotional support and other services for Brighton’s LGBT community. On April 30th, a firewalking event raised £7000 for the Switchboard.

YMCA Downslink Group       

A registered charity that runs several different groups around Sussex and Surrey, YMCA Downslink provides a variety of services to communities, with a focus on the needs of children, young people and families that find themselves on the fringes of society.

In Brighton, through supported accommodation they house 79 young people each night across 6 houses. Each young person is allocated a support worker who will help them to identify targets and to work towards achieving goals that lead to independence. In addition to this, the group runs a range of workshops, such as Creative Arts For Building Confidence, Keep Calm and Carry On (Anger Management) and Walk and Talk (group walk and counselling session.

RYP (Reach Your Potential) is another initiative run by YMCA Downslink in Brighton and Hove. Working with Youth Offending Services, Probation and prisons, they help young peoples’ reintegration into society and support them in realising their ambitions.

If you’re 13-25 and want to follow in the footsteps of these great groups, simply sign up to our O2 Think Big workshops at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/o2-think-big-300-for-your-idea-tickets-17761125003 

By Miles Rowland

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Check out this awesome infographic from RS Components, featuring 33 exciting different uses of 3D printing.

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