KUWAIT: Zain announces the kick-off of Innovation Nation, a unique experience that comes in partnership with Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) and in collaboration with the Avenues. The initiative runs daily from July 9-19 and offers a unique set of rich content, courses, and workshops with the aim of empowering children and youth’s technical and digital skills in a fun, informative and innovative way. The opening ceremony was attended by Zain Kuwait CEO Eaman Al Roudhan, Mabanee CEO Waleed Khalid Al-Sharian and SACGC GM Neda Al-Dehani.
The project is the first fruitful result of Zain and SACGC’s recently signed strategic partnership to invest in the talents and skills of Kuwait’s children and youth to contribute to the national economy by empowering tech and digital competencies, which are core requirements of today’s careers. Innovation Nation brings many daily courses for young people aged 7-14 years. Each course or workshop runs for two hours and is supervised and facilitated by experts and certified trainers from SACGC.
The content is presented in an out-of-the-box way with fun, informative and innovative educational methods that appeal to young people. The content offered by Innovation Nation mainly covers the essentials of a variety of technical and digital topics that are aligned with the requirements of modern markets and careers, including electronics, robotics, 3D printers, programming, artificial intelligence and more. The initiative offers a great opportunity for parents to positively fill their children’s free time while they shop at the Avenues.
Zain recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SACGC - a center of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) - to build a new strategic partnership that focuses on elevating the digital literacy of the youth, empower creativity and innovation, and enhance the local startup ecosystem in the community. The MoU aims to foster a joint collaboration between the two partners to achieve a number of targets, including elevating digital literacy, develop digital competencies, support the local startups ecosystem, empower Kuwaiti inventors and innovators to excel, and more to serve the nation’s developmental, economic, and social goals.
The partnership targets young people of 7-35 years, and includes insightful programs, workshops, and more to share expertise and achieve these shared goals. This particular activity is the first of many projects under Zain’s all-new initiative, Innovation Nation, under which all of Zain’s innovation and entrepreneurship programs will fall, especially within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas. The initiative mainly targets the youth, and centers around a number of pillars, including entrepreneurship, investment, startup acceleration, supporting inventors, fostering innovation and more. On its part, Mabanee reflects its social responsibility by launching and supporting a range of CSR activities and projects in collaboration with many of its partners.
The company believes that such initiatives aim at investing in the talents of young people and help create an innovative, digitally capable generation, ultimately benefiting the entire community. Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity was established in 2010 as an initiative by His Highness the Late Amir and former Chairman of the board of directors of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah. The center was founded to nurture Kuwaiti Human capital and resource with innovation, technical knowledge, and expertise to enhance the development and growth of Kuwait.
SACGC is dedicated to facilitating knowledge and investing in exceptional and high achieving individuals within the entrepreneurial and innovation fields. The center also aims to foster an environment that generates impact across the community that will, in turn, boost social, economic and cultural development. The center boasts five dedicated scientific clubs each specializing in a different area: the programing club, the robotics club, the science and math club, the electronics club, and the design club.
SACGC also offers support to young people and innovators who wish to execute their own projects under the supervision of the center’s engineers and trainers, offering specially designed courses to support unique projects, and even manufacturing tools and services like digital engraving, laser cutting, 3D printing, and more.