There’s a new and unconventional space for children in Dar-es-Salaam, and it’s called UpStudio Africa! As the name suggests, it is a design and innovation studio that helps children think about and solve tomorrow’s problems. We caught up with UpStudio’s founder and CEO, Shama Kheraj, to ask her five questions.
1. On your about page, you say jobs are changing. Why should kids care at a young age?
“Why should children care? Children don’t need more to care or worry about. Children need the space to enjoy and love the process of learning, creating, building, and exploring.
“Parents can care about the changing jobs landscape and how it may impact their children in the future. In the 19th century, the world saw the growth of manufacturing and innovations such as steam engines and cars. During this time, labourers were required mechanical skills to work manufacturing lines. In the 20th century, the world was introduced to the radio, television, and the Internet. The next 20-30 years will see new innovations and dramatic change in the landscape of jobs and skills. While parents do not need to map out career pathways for their children, they can encourage core skills that will be required across jobs, including core problem solving, creativity, communication, confidence and more.”
The next 20-30 years will dramatically see the landscape of jobs and skills required.
“The current and post COVID-19 world is seeing an almost immediate change in the landscape of jobs and work. While Tanzania is yet to go into lockdown, the majority of the world has transitioned to working from home in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19. For example, there is a rise in e-commerce across the African continent and will continue to expand post-COVID. This will require a rise of software engineers, digital media, marketing experts and other capabilities required. Managers and leaders have to learn to manage their teams virtually, including enabling creative and innovative contributions to product development, how to create an empathetic working environment for their employees, and much more.”
2. Humanity has always had the challenge of current generations not fully grasping future generations’ opportunities – to what extent is UpStudio Africa helping us see the future?
“At UpStudio, we expose our young innovators to new technologies that are emerging in the world today. More importantly, we encourage our young innovators to think beyond the possibilities of today’s world and instead venture into the future. We want young innovators to not only understand the science that drives innovation today but instead learn how to alter how we see the world beyond their imagination today.”
We want young innovators […] to alter science in the future to fulfil their imagination today.
3. Can you share a glimpse of a sample activity kids can expect at UpStudio Africa?
“We offer a variety of Studios that range from science exploration to design to robotics – and we continue to evolve our offerings frequently. Within each studio, students receive a challenge that they solve in groups. Students understand the challenge at hand; ideate and design potential solutions to address the challenge; prototype, test and improve these designs; and finally present their solutions and ideas. The following is an example of a challenge: Build a bridge that can hold 5 kilograms of weight. How much more weight can it carry? How long can you make it?
“When schools in Tanzania closed during the global COVID-19 pandemic, UpStudio Africa launched Innovation Challenges for children on our Social Media platforms (Facebook and Instagram). Innovation Hour is a free set of building and science challenges that children can complete at home with materials easily available. These challenges can give you a glimpse into some of our Studios.”
Innovation Hour is a free set of building and science challenges that children can complete at home with materials easily available.
4. The Internet has a lot of STEAM media for parents. Why is it important for you to bring families to one place rather than learn on their own?
“Absolutely. There are several STEAM resources available for parents and yet, there are several reasons to bring children to UpStudio Africa in person or virtually.
“Skills: At UpStudio, we aim to create a safe and innovative learning environment that nurtures collaborative, compassionate, and confident young learners. While some of these skills can be taught at home and in school, they are enhanced and refined even further within a space and virtually, such as UpStudio Africa.
- “Collaboration and compassion: Learning to collaborate and work with others is critical to growth. It is a skill that employers globally look for when hiring and a skill that entrepreneurs need to succeed. While collaboration can be encouraged at home, if working with siblings, working with those who children do not know helps you nurture and refine their leadership, listening, and sharing skills, as well as compassion for others. Even on our virtual platforms, we encourage our explorers to share ideas and designs with their colleagues, and provide feedback to each other.
- “Confidence: There are many ways children build confidence outside the boundaries of their home. First, children can gain confidence in themselves as well as others by collaborating, sharing, and learning from their peers. Second, when encouraged to test, fail, iterate, and test again among peers allows them to be confident that they are not alone in their learning and growth journey; all learners go through the same process that they are going through. Lastly, young learners gain confidence in their communication in larger groups of children as well as adults when they are able to present their ideas and designs in front of others.
“Hardware: Within the UpStudio space, we have additional costly hardware and resources that may not be available in homes.
“Facilitated learning: During the pandemic, it is becoming increasingly difficult for parents to facilitate learning at home. Parents have the responsibility to meet academic requirements set out by schools and teachers. Our virtual Studios allow for parents to take a step back as we help your child navigate the building and solving process at home.”
5. How can young adults help promote the UpStudio philosophy?
“Tanzania’s young adults can play a critical role in nurturing the next generation of Tanzania’s young leaders. Firstly, they can sign up to become a visiting facilitator. UpStudio’s network of visiting facilitators is a group of young leaders who come from a diverse set of careers and backgrounds in Tanzania who commit time to UpStudio to support and facilitate weekend studios and camps.
“Secondly, Tanzania’s young adults are or will soon become young parents. We truly believe young parents need to think critically about what types of opportunities will help young children truly grow into holistic human beings we need for our country and for the planet. What is your next generation going to look like? With UpStudio Africa, you can determine that journey!”
From the team at Vijana FM, thank you for your time, Shama!
Further reading:
Shukuru Amos also writes about how older students can prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet: https://www.vijana.fm/2020/01/29/how-can-tanzania-students-prepare-for-jobs-that-dont-exist-yet/