Digital skill booster for children from Oman's ITA

Muscat: Children as young as 11 are honing their digital skills in Oman under a special programme.
The programme called, ‘Kids’ Innovation Theatre,’ is being run by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), under which 40 children aged 11 to 14 are being trained for a month in one of four IT areas: digital media, application development, hardware, and innovation.
According to a statement by ITA, “The programme includes workshops, project planning, project displays, and soft skills enhancement.”
“We have three phases. Workshops based on increasing skills and awareness, as well as formulating an innovative idea. In the second phase, we allow children to convert these ideas into creative products or services. Lastly, these innovations will be presented in an exhibition,” the statement added.
“The programme is free of charge, began on July 17 and will end on August 17. It runs every day from 8:30am to 2pm, excluding weekends and holidays. All participants chose their fields of interests themselves, and had to record a 60-second video interview in order to qualify for the programme. In the video, they spoke about their interests and listed their achievements.”
Last year, KIT also contained a workshop specific to media production. One participant said, “I learned that you cannot have a film without first coming up with an idea, then a scene. Only then do you give out the parts.”
“The director coordinates. He would tell an assistant exactly where he needs the lights, for a good scene,” added another, while a third commented on wireless cyber security.
A project manager during this year’s event said, “We’ve partnered up with many companies and authorities. Cisco took the children to their company for two days for on-site training and experience. There were sponsors and partners, such as Microsoft Oman, the IT Society, Oman LNG, Oman Sail, Ministry of Education, Innovation Factory, Cisco, AL Marsa, Khimji, raining Institute, Momkin, Samara Training, Injaz Oman, SQU, Maharat, SME development fund, Engineering Village, Waljat College, and Rouzana.”
Al Hussain Al Musawi, HoD of External Relations Office at Middle East College, where the project took place, said, “MEC always seeks to serve the community and help improve it. This was the reason why we were more than happy to host this initiative. We worked hard to make this event a huge success and to guarantee the best experience for the kids.”