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KidZania Kuwait, the exciting kid-centric metropolis has joined hands with Microsoft Kuwait in a bold initiative to empower kids to achieve more through building their technology skills. The partnership with Microsoft is the first of its kind for KidZania and aims at equipping kids with digital and soft skills that would prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.

The partnership was celebrated on 28 October, at a special ceremony held at KidZania in the presence of KidZania Kuwait’s management team and Microsoft’s official representatives in Kuwait. The collaboration is based on the shared vision of KidZania and Microsoft to inspire children by immersing them in real-life scenarios, that are both educational and entertaining.

Research reveals that by 2030 – and while automation replaces today’s lower-skill jobs – the fastest-growing occupations will require higher-level of cognitive skills in areas such as collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

While KidZania continues its mission of helping children get ready for a better world, Microsoft will prepare them for their future workplace skills with the help of its solutions and innovations to build digital literacy. Microsoft has been at the forefront of digital transformation in the classroom by delivering new approaches to learning that can provide them with rich, immersive and collaborative experiences to develop critical and employability skills.

The Microsoft Innovation Lab at KidZania will offer a choice to experience three different activities that promote creativity, collaboration, computational thinking and problem-solving. The first is Hacking STEM which is a series of fun project-based activities that use everyday materials to visualize data across science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The second activity is Make Code, a robotics activity that creates engaging computer science learning experiences that support a progression path into real-world coding. And the third activity is Paint 3D, that unleashes creativity and allows kids to bring 3D designs to life.

The Microsoft innovation lab is also equipped with the latest Microsoft Surface devices that are built from the ground up to boost engagement, productivity, collaboration and creativity, making learning interactive and inspiring.

Fernando Medroa, Vice President of Leisure and Entertainment at M.H. Alshaya Co., said: “Our collaboration with Microsoft underlines our strategic approach and contentious effort to empower kids by providing them with a fun-based learning opportunity to gain much needed skills to prepare them for the future.”

Microsoft Kuwait General Manager, Charles Nahas, said: “Today’s kids will go to work in a digitally transformed world – one in which the Fourth Industrial Revolution has forever reshaped how and where people earn a living. Microsoft has a proud history in education, having played an active role in transforming classrooms and encouraging entrepreneurship in students as well as empowering the youth to be future ready. The future digital communities will only create prosperity for all if we have the right leaders and workers – creative, critical thinkers grounded in soft skills and capable of great innovation. That is the work we have done; it is the work we are doing now; and it is the work that we will continue to do with partners like KidZania”

At KidZania, Microsoft will also focus on raising awareness of the essential role technology plays in children’s lives, underlining how today’s children are more comfortable with technology, and that being better equipped with the right skills will enable them to function more efficiently in the digital future. These efforts are in line with Microsoft’s Cloud Society Future Ready initiative, that aims to empower the students of today to bring their ideas to life and build new worlds tomorrow, with the power of coding.