Volunteer of the Year Award 2026
This year our Volunteer of the Year award goes to Miles Bardon, Senior Software Engineer at The LEGO Group. Miles has been one of our top volunteers since joining us way back in 2019! He has taken part in many student sessions across the years, and we frequently receive glowing feedback about how insightful and inspiring the students find his sessions.
As well as being an incredible role model for young people during our Industry Engagement sessions, he is a constant support to the team at Apps for Good. If ever in a pinch, Miles is happy to step in and help out - and we're incredibly grateful. We were thrilled to interview him as part of our Career Series in 2025 where he shared lots of insight into his exciting career at The LEGO Group.
Q&A with Miles Bardon
How did you get involved with Apps for Good?
I joined in 2019 when I saw the Apps for Good stand at a tech conference. I was already a Code Club volunteer, and was extremely interested to see how I could expand my reach to even more young people and help them find out if a career in technology was right for them.
Tell us about some of the app ideas students have shared with you this year, were there any particular ideas that really stood out to you?
My favourite part of working with Apps for Good is seeing the creativity the students have, and how they apply their non-technical skills to designing apps. One that comes to mind was a group designing a video game that teaches the user about protecting the environment, but the group had designed all their game characters by hand, creating a unique art style that wouldn’t be out of place in a AAA video game.
From your perspective, how does industry engagement benefit young people?
At the relatively young age the students are, they won’t have always come across many industry professionals, nor considered what those careers may look like once they graduate from their current level of education. Industry engagement allows us to bridge that gap, and provide an accessible entry-point into what the world of work may have in store for them. They have far more time to weigh their options about how they want to progress into a career, and we should provide them as many pathways as possible, such as to not restrict those with the desire to make an entrance to the tech world, but without the know-how at that point in time.
What did you gain from the experience of volunteering with Apps for Good?
Hearing all the pitches, be they around environmental concerns or how they can impact a societal problem close to home, I’m inspired by many of the ideas that are novel, and given greater hope that these people will be our engineers, designers, or even law-makers in the future, and that our world and society will really benefit from their input.
Who can be an Industry Volunteer?
Almost anyone can be an Apps for Good Industry Volunteer. You don’t need to be a “techie” - we want young people to see the diversity of roles available to them. All you need is a positive and constructive approach to giving feedback.