Applications for life changing scholarship open next month on Monday 9th January 2023. In partnership with Birmingham City University each year Millennium Point Trust fund an undergraduate degree at BCU.

There are over 20 courses to choose from included in the scholarship. The deadline is on Friday 31st March 2023, meaning plenty of time to complete the application.

Hatem impressed judges last year with his passion for Computer Science

Hatem was studying at Solihull College with ambitions to study Computer Science at university. In Hatem’s application he made it clear how much winning the Scholarship would mean to him, his great passion for computers and his mission to use computing and technology to better lives. The Millennium Point Trust team were hugely impressed with Hatem’s application and selected him along with four other finalists.

All the finalists attended an assessment day at Millennium Point, where they each presented to a panel of five judges, Hatem impressed the panel the most and was selected as the lucky winner of this year’s Scholarship, which has already helped launch the careers of seven outstanding STEM students. Hatem has since started his Computer Science degree at Birmingham City University that started in September 2022.

Applying is easy and simple

The competition is open to applicants aged 17 and over within the West Midlands Combined authority, who are looking to start a qualifying degree in September 2023.

Read the application form carefully and start to answer each question. Think about why you want to study your chosen degree and what you want to do in the future. Also discuss any personal attributes and skills that could help you be the next winner of the Scholarship.

It’s a two-stage application, with the final stage being an assessment day. If you make to the final, you will be invited to participate in developmental workshops that will focus on supporting our personal development and professionalism in both interview and presentation skills.

We’re here to help you every step of the way

We want everyone to have the best chance of success when applying for our scholarship scheme, and sometimes bigging yourself up can be a little daunting. That’s why we have created a helpful guide to aid you through your application. Keep an eye out on our social media for any new blogs, videos or resources that can help further.

You can always contact our friendly Trust team for any other enquiries you may have.

Unlock your student’s future by getting your school involved

Get your school involved and spread the word about the scholarship. Tell parents, students, teachers, and colleagues. The bigger it gets, the more impact we can make together.

We have created a teacher’s portal with assets and information that can help you provide students information on how to apply.

Are you a business wanting to get involved? Visit our business portal here. We’re always on the lookout to collaborate with businesses and professionals on the Millennium Point Trust scholarship.

Why do we do this?

At Millennium Point we believe that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is important for the future of the region. Now, more than ever young people need our support and encouragement for them to unlock their potential. The scholarship is just one of the ways we can provide support to help them achieve people’s goals.

Learn more about Millennium Point Trust

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests on average £4.8m each year towards furthering Stem education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to scholarships, grants and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust in our brand-new brochure here.

Keep up to date when scholarships go live

Applications open on 9th January 2023 and end 31st March 2023, bookmark our scholarship page and get ready to see what you can achieve!

After a hugely successful event last year, St Basils returned to Millennium Point on Friday 25th November to host their annual big sleepout. The event took place in our Cinema Square car park and was once again successful at raising funds to help end youth homelessness.

The St Basils Big Sleepout is the oldest, longest running event of  its kind. It’s one of St Basils most popular events among their community, with volunteers challenged with sleeping out in the cold during winter to understand the difficulties that homeless people go through on a daily basis.

How St Basils are doing their bit to beat homelessness

St Basils work with young people ages 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, to enable them to find and keep a home, grow their confidence, develop their skills, increase opportunities, and prevent homelessness.

This year St Basils announced the annual event had amazingly raised £62,000 and funds are still coming in.

A community united

It was fantastic to see so many organisations braving the cold and taking part in the event, 400 individuals settled in for the night in cardboard boxes all to raise funds for the good cause. Throughout the night volunteers took part in the much loved Creative Cardboard Competition for the best dwelling, with a prize given to the lucky winner.  The cardboard boxes were provided by Schumacher, who have been providing packaging for the sleepout for over 15 years.

Much needed warmth was delivered with free vegan curry and hot drinks provided by the Langar Aid project.

Fundraisers were also entertained during the night by The Band of the West Midlands Fire Services to keep spirits high on a very cold evening.

Couldn’t make it to the sleepout? You can still make a difference

It costs £5 a day to support a young person and keep them at a St Basils project. Supporters can make a one-off donation here. Help change a young person’s life for the better today.

One school in the West Midlands is using their Millennium Point Grant to give back to the community. Turves Green Boys School applied for a grant for their project called ‘helping the elderly’.

Their plan was ‘to assist in making the daily lives of the elderly better and easier’ while learning STEM in the process.

Aim of the project

There are a number of retirement homes in the school’s area. The project was for students to meet with residents to find out what they needed and what the students could make for them. This would include carrying out research and designing and making the items.

Turves Green Boys School started off on simple projects such as door stops and has since moved on to more complex items such as coffee tables and seating. But ultimately, they will make whatever the residents need.

The application had asked for £1,000 to buy materials for the project. The school already owns two laser cutting machines and will also involve CAD/CAM design to complete the project.

Year 7 & Year 8 students were chosen for the project with the aim that they will go on to pick Design and Technology in their options and continue their STEM education.

Outcome of the project

Students from the school visited Millennium Point recently. They produced and delivered a presentation to the Millennium Point Trust team, explaining the process and showcasing the finished products.

Students are now doing projects in STEM that will cover Maths, Technology & Engineering, while building the name and reputation of the school in the local area. The project has also benefited the residents of the community.

Apply for a Millennium Point Grant today and watch STEM happen

Originally set to close on Friday 2nd December 2022, the STEM Grants application is now officially extended to Friday 16th December 2022 to give everyone a chance to apply this year. Over the last five years, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded over £2 million to charities, not-for-profits, community groups and schools to further STEM education.

Millennium Point STEM Grants are available from £1,000 to £20,000 to individual applicants to support science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) education in Birmingham and the wider region.

You can apply here.

Originally set to close on Friday 2nd December 2022, the STEM Grants application is now officially extended to Friday 16th December 2022 to give everyone a chance to apply this year. Over the last five years, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded over £2 million to charities, not-for-profits, community groups and schools to further STEM education.

Millennium Point STEM Grants are available from £1,000 to £20,000 to individual applicants to support science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) education in Birmingham and the wider region.

You can apply here.

Building the future with STEM

Over the past five years, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded over £2 million to charities, not-for-profit community groups and schools to further STEM education. Millennium Point Charitable Trust has previously seen the rewarding outcome of past projects such as ‘Breaking the Barriers to STEM’ with a fantastic STEM garden. Ahead Partnership engaged students at their Digitech Festival with inspiring guest speeches and activities from STEM industries. Ark Tindall Primary transformed an outside space into a Science Area to enhance their STEM curriculum.

Discover more about past fantastic projects here.

Available to help you, every step of the way

We want everyone applying to have the best chances of success. That’s why our fantastic Trust Team have put together some useful information on our website. If you have any questions have a look at our frequently asked questions page, you can always contact our team with any other queries. You will also find out STEM Grant Application Guidance there too. The guidance intended to assist organisations in applying for funding from the Millennium Point Trust’s STEM grants programme.

Anyone applying can also look at our latest blog with tips on applying for the Millennium Point STEM Grants.

Discover more about Millennium Point Trust

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests more than £4.8m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust in our brand new brochure here.

By booking with Millennium Point you’re helping support STEM growth

Everything Millennium Point Charitable Trust achieves is made possible by the commercial activity that takes place in our landmark building. It all feeds back into the Charitable Trust, enabling it to donate and invest in STEM-related organisations, projects, and initiatives.

When booking events with Millennium Point you are widening your CSR and supporting the local region. Find our how and more about our 11 unique event spaces here.

Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands. 

STEM education has a much bigger impact on our everyday lives than you may realise. STEM isn’t just about teaching maths and science, it helps to develop a skill set that changes the way we think, act and feel. 

Providing STEM education helps to shape the world we live in, through the creation and development of new technologies that help improve and simplify our everyday lives.

Championing innovation 

It has often been pointed out that innovation and diversity have a strong correlation. Due to this, STEM education gives underrepresented groups the opportunity to access inspiring role models. According to STEMWomen, this makes underrepresented groups more likely to feel as though they belong to something.

Furthermore, The Royal Society published an article where it states that only 18.7% of academic staff in STEM are from ethnic minority groups, with only 1.7% being black. Improving STEM education to underrepresented groups will help increase diversity and encourage a more welcoming environment for these groups. This will also help to encourage future talent as they will see what people have achieved before them.

Providing opportunities in STEM for everyone will help to create a wider talent pool, helping to increase the chances of innovation.

STEM and its impact on the world

STEM students and professionals tend to be motivated about the impact their projects have on the world. STEM is also inclusive of people with disabilities and gives students and professionals the opportunity to be innovative and passionate about the work they produce. 

However, there is still an aim to increase the opportunities STEM gives to those with disabilities. For example AccessSTEM wants to increase the number of people with disabilities completing post secondary STEM degrees and entering the STEM workforce. AccessComputing has similar goals, but is narrowed down to just the computing industry.

Why is STEM education important?

STEM education is extremely important as it helps to shape the way we think and act. Providing STEM education also increases the ambitions of young people. For example, a report by STEM learning found that before ambassadors visited a school, 80% of students wanted to be YouTuber’s, Vets, Footballers or Gamers. However, after ambassadors showed the students bigger, global projects they found that students wanted to explore more opportunities within STEM. 

Furthermore, STEM are working on providing better education to help reduce the gender gap in STEM education. According to WISE, only 24% of the STEM workforce are female, meaning there is a large talent pool that is being overlooked. However, further investment in STEM education will help to close the gender gap. 

For example, Girls Who Code is a non-profit organisation that’s aiming to reduce the gender gap within technology globally. The course teaches girls computer science, bravery and sisterhood. Research shows that if they carry on the way they are, they should be able to close the gender gap by 2030.

This shows that STEM education is important as it teaches students new skills, while developing how they think, feel and act, as well as working on important issues such as closing the gender gap within STEM industries.

What skills can children learn from STEM

STEM subjects can be easily adapted to the age group, size group, ability and interests of the group you’re working with. A great thing about STEM subjects is that they’re very practical and some activities can appear like games for children, making them more enjoyable. 

Due to this, STEM education teaches skills such as:

Millennium Point’s impact on STEM Education

Millennium Point annually provides funding to not-for-profit organisations, schools and colleges across the West Midlands Combined Authority area. 

Millennium Point also offers STEM grant, where applicants can apply for up to £20,000 for their STEM related project, depending on whether they meet eligibility criteria, as well as being able to demonstrate a measurable impact in their STEM education or career choice.

STEM grant applications are now open. Click here to apply.

Furthermore, over the past five years the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded charities, not-for-profit organisations, schools and community groups over £2,100,706 to further STEM education. 

Where does the money come from?

Profits from our commercial activity, goes straight into our charitable trust, allowing us to donate and invest in STEM related organisations, projects and initiatives.

To discover more about what Millennium Point has to offer, click here.

 

Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.

With Birmingham being the second largest city in the UK, it offers excellent travel links, including planes, trains, and automobiles. Birmingham offers many interesting spaces to hold corporate events, allowing you to choose a building that fits in with the event you’re hosting.

Benefits of holding corporate events in Birmingham

Excellent transport links

One of the many benefits to holding corporate events in Birmingham is that it has great transport links.

Birmingham’s central location within the country means it’s relatively easy to get to from almost anywhere within the country. Similarly, with Birmingham International Airport only a short train journey from Birmingham City Centre, it’s a favoured location for international corporate events.

When here, its robust intercity transport infrastructure, which includes metro, bus, train and cycle lanes, means there are multiple ways for delegates to travel to your event other than by car.

Brum is booming

Birmingham’s economy is booming and shows no signs of slowing down! By A4 of 2021, Birmingham’s Gross Value Added (GVA) grew 6.9% and is predicted to grow a further 2.3% year-on-year, causing an economy of £27 billion by the end of 2023 (Irwin Mitchell).

In 2021, the West Midlands was named the UK’s fastest-growing tech hub with the sector now valued at £15.3bn.

Not only this, but the fact that household brands such as Mondelez, Jaguar and Whitbread have headquarters in the UK’s second city, it’s understandable that there’s an influx of economic growth.

This makes Birmingham a desirable destination for business and a thriving location for opportunity for hosting and growing your corporate event portfolio.

Great restaurants, bars, and hotels

Don’t let the socialising stop when your event ends. Birmingham also offers great opportunities for further networking and socialising. Hospitality clusters like Colmore Business District, Brindley Place, Digbeth, the Mailbox, and the Jewellery Quarter all offer a wide range of cafés, bars, and restaurants.

There are some great central hotels, including Hotel Indigo in the Cube, The Clayton Hotel and The Holiday Inn, depending on your price range.

Community spirit

One great aspect to Birmingham is its sense of community. The city is known for its friendly, honest, and open community, making Birmingham a welcoming destination excellent for holding corporate events.

With Birmingham having one of the youngest, highly qualified workforces and five universities with 73,000 students, the city is extremely diverse and welcoming to all.

How Millennium Point can help you hold a corporate event

Millennium point is situated in the heart of Birmingham City Centre, just minutes away from public transport links.  We’re open to hold conferences, exhibitions and hire units for corporate, educational and entertainment purposes.

To find out more about how Millennium Point can help you host your next corporate event, click here.

St Basils are back planning the oldest and biggest sleepout in the UK in Birmingham. On Friday 25th November, St Basils will host their annual big sleepout at Millennium Point in Birmingham to raise vital funds to support young people experiencing homelessness in the West Midlands.

St Basils are a homelessness charity based in the West Midlands that have been supporting young people in in fear of losing their home since 1972.

St Basils are not charging for this event, it is FREE! But get involved and raise as much as you can by having people sponsor you. Free vegan curry and hot drinks will also be served by Langar Aid on the night!

You can register for the event here.

Homelessness shouldn’t be part of growing up

St Basils work with young people ages 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, to enable them to find and keep a home, grow their confidence, develop their skills, increase opportunities, and prevent homelessness.

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium point, said “We are delighted to offer our venue and support once more to the St Basils team, whose commitment to improving the lives of young vulnerable people aligns to our own charitable mission.

While a sleepout is challenging, a night without home comforts pales in comparison to the true horror more than 8,500 young people in the West Midlands alone are experiencing every single night without a home or place of safety.

We urge as many people and businesses as possible to sign up and join us at the sleepout. Together we can raise a record amount of funds so St Basils can continue to provide life changing support to young people in dire need throughout our communities”.

Challenge yourself and make a difference with St Basils Big Sleepout

The Big Sleepout sees hundreds of people from companies, families and groups taking part by challenging themselves, raising money and having fun; particularly in the much coveted ‘creative shelter competition’.

Barrie Hodge, Head of Fundraising and Marketing at St Basils said “Most of our young people who need support are either in full time education or working part-time and sometimes have more than one job yet are already struggling to survive on a very low income. This year St Basils celebrates its 50th anniversary and with the soaring costs young people are experiencing, we are needed more than ever.  We welcome people from across the region to come along, sleepout for the night and help us raise money to support those who need it the most”.

Can’t make it to Millennium Point, you can still make a difference

St Basils will also be running ‘The Big Sleepout from Home’ at the same time. So, if you can’t make it to Millennium Point, you can still get involved in your back garden, office, community hall or ‘sofa surfing’ at home.

You can find out more and apply for your Big Sleepout pack by emailing [email protected].

Supporters can also make one off donations here, it costs £5 a day to support a young person and keep them at a St Basils project.

Want to book an event space with Millennium Point?

The multi-award-winning Millennium Point has 11 versatile event spaces to choose from and an excellent events team to help you with your event.  

For further information about the event, charity, or venue you can get in contact with our team.

Bader Media Entertainment CIC is a production company with a combined passion for filmmaking and protecting the environment. Profits made from projects fun own community interest activities and external charities that focus on combatting litter worldwide. Based in the UK, they produce high-quality creative content for entertainment, community interest and to promote their mission to protect the environment.

Aim of the event

The objective for Bader Media Entertainment CIC was to host a film premiere for their latest feature ‘The Shimian’. The clients were keen on making the evening a great experience for their guests and one that would make them feel the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood premiere.

Why Millennium Point for The Shimian World Premiere?

Our clients are local filmmakers to the Birmingham area and had previously visited Millennium Point’s Auditorium for film screenings. They chose Millennium Point to show The Shimian because the Director had been impressed with the size of the screen and the condition of the Auditorium, as well as the space available below on event space Platform.

Another reason was location, Millennium Point is close to Birmingham City Centre and central train stations such as New Street Station, a bonus for guests arriving from other cities.

Challenges and Solutions

The challenge for Bader Media Entertainment CIC was to find a venue that also were event organisers to ensure the event was a success. The events team were on hand to help with the organisation before and after the event.

Our team developed an events plan that would make the evening an exciting experience for our client’s guests. We suggested ideas along the way how the team could help, and what to do with the space to make it atmospheric and professional.

Particularly, our in-house AV team, which comes standard with most bookings, worked closely with theirs to ensure the best visual and audio experience for the premiere.

AV Equipment and Service

As it was a film premiere it was vital that the screen and sound for the film was perfect. Our AV team worked closely with the client to test visuals and sound to ensure it met expectations and needs. This was through screening tests and run throughs so changes could be made to really give the film the wow factor on the Auditorium screen.

Bader Media Entertainment CIC have received feedback since the premiere on how good the sound and visuals were.

Working with the Millennium Point Team

Our events team had received positive reviews from working with Bader Media Entertainment CIC. The Event Operations team were professional, pleasant & friendly on the night so guests could enjoy their evening. Behind the scenes, the Events team ensured the planning, organisation and communication was all sorted throughout so the event could really give the wow factor. Along with this Marketing worked with the Director to promote the event and film to give it the limelight the film deserved.

How was the client’s experience of Millennium Point?

James Peakman, Director of Bader Media Entertainment CIC said

‘It was an absolute pleasure working with Millennium Point, and I literally can’t fault the staff or place itself. They were so accommodating and gave us attention to detail that I would struggle to find at another venue. The premiere itself was a huge success for us and has opened doors for further movies. The feedback from the guests about the event has been excellent. I would like to say a massive thank you to all the staff at Millennium Point for being so professional and welcoming, and now we will have to make another movie so we can host another premiere at Millennium Point’.

Book our Auditorium for a test today!

Our friendly events team is always happy to help. Get in touch today to discuss your event needs, and bring a sample of your work with you, we guarantee that you will be blown away when you see your content on our giant screen for the first time.

We can’t wait to talk to you!

 

We’re excited to say applications for the next round of funding for projects is now open!

A project to build a fully operational light aircraft, STEM training toolkits for schools and a car engineering workshop for girls are just some of the exciting projects amongst the successful applicants in The Millennium Point Charitable Trust’s Small Grants Programme.

Grants up to £20,000 can be applied for here, you have until the 2nd December to apply, good luck!

Endless possibilities with STEM

Over the past five years, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded over £2 million to charities, not-for-profits, community groups and schools to further STEM education. Millennium Point Charitable Trust has previously seen the rewarding outcome of past projects such as ‘Breaking the Barriers to STEM’ with a fantastic STEM garden. Ahead Partnership engaged students at their Digitech Festival with inspiring guest speeches and activities from STEM industries. Ark Tindall Primary transformed an outside space into a Science Area to enhance their STEM curriculum.

Last year Millennium Point Trust saw 100 applications from schools and not-for-profit organisations all aiming to recieve a share of the grant money to better STEM education in the region.

Vanessa Currie, Head of People, Learning and Development at Millennium Point comments:

“We are pleased to announce the latest round of grant funding from the Millennium Point Charitable Trust.

The West Midlands is the largest hub for science and innovation outside of London, with the youngest population in Europe and one of the highest percentiles of STEM graduates in the UK.

With many schools being forced to cut costs and resources to deliver their curriculums, we risk seeing the skills gap widen as less children are engaged in STEM, which is why this initiative is crucial now, more than ever.”

Award-winning charity in the heart of Birmingham

All funding given by Millennium Point Charitable Trust is made possible by the commercial activity that takes place in the landmark Millennium Point building. It all feeds back into the charitable trust, enabling to be donated and invested in STEM-related organisations, projects, and initiatives.

When booking events with Millennium Point you are widening your CSR and supporting the local region. Find out how and more about our unique event spaces here.

Apply for a grant today and support the future of STEM 

At Millennium Point we believe that STEM is important for the future of the region, so we are excited to see what this year’s applications bring.

The next round of applications for the 2023 grant are now open and close at 5pm on 2nd December 2022.

Since its launch in 2018, Millennium Point Charitable Trust has provided almost £400k to more than 100 projects across education, STEM-focused charities, sporting charities, and museums.

You can apply for a grant on our website here, if you need any help look at our frequently asked questions page or speak to one of our friendly Trust team.

We’ve had another rewarding year for Millennium Point Charitable Trust’s STEM Grants Programme. Each year we grant organisations and educators in the local region funds for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) projects and better teaching materials. We received 100 applications this year with lots of creative and innovative STEM projects put forward to receive funding.

Meet the recipients

We would like to give a big congratulations to our latest recipients of a Millennium Point Charitable Trust STEM grant:

Helping education and communities across Birmingham and the wider region

As we wish to maximise the impact of our grants, we encourage grant applicants to apply for smaller grants of between £1,000 and £5,000. This will mean that we can potentially help more organisations. There will still be the opportunity for a few larger grants (of up to £20,000) to be given but in the main we will be concentrating on helping the wider community with smaller grants.

Along with the grants scheme there is also the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship which funds one young person’s undergraduate degree each year at Birmingham City University. You can find out more about our scholarships here.

Interested in receiving a grant for STEM projects? Get in touch

To find out more information get in contact with our team or on our website here.