Activities of 2nd batch of IT Kids Innovation Theatre conclude

MUSCAT: The Information Technology Authority (ITA), in cooperation with Middle East College (MEC) and other public and private partners and supporters, celebrated the conclusion of IT Kids Innovation Theatre (IT KIT) Initiative, with the presence of Dr Yaqoob al Balushi, Deputy CEO of Infrastructure and eServices, some officials from public and private entities and kids’ parents.

The programme ran for 4 weeks from July 17 to August 17, and the 2nd batch witnessed great interest from kids and parents as more than 100 registrations received and 40 kids from different parts of the Sultanate were selected and joined. It aimed at developing and enhancing the kids’ capabilities in IT field and encouraging them to utilise their IT knowledge, ideas and imagination to produce real services and products under the supervision of specialists in this field, in addition to qualifying and empowering them to be future IT entrepreneurs.

The programme included technical and non-technical skill development under different fields, which are digital media development (like animation, film production etc), applications development (electronic games and mobile applications), hardware and IT innovation (robotics, programming and other related application development) along with soft skill development in the areas of personality development, interpersonal effectiveness, mind mapping, entrepreneurship development, security, HSE, problem solving sessions, in addition to workshops.

The programme provided an opportunity for the kids to work in real environment and also included displaying the developed applications and innovations at the accompanying exhibition.

This year, the programme also opened the venue for all the kids in Oman and trained them on coding in 2 hours with around 260 registrants. In addition, special focus was given to girls through organising a session under the name of D G Girls through which ladies working in ICT industry were invited to develop interaction between participating girls and those ladies. This session aimed at encouraging girls to take up the ICT field and be entrepreneurs.

To showcase the talents and creativity of participating kids, the celebration was accompanied with an exhibition where kids presented their IT innovative projects.