Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA), and the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), in partnership with Kalimat Group, have declared a newly-launched initiative called the Future Changemakers, aimed at making use of remote learning to instill essential thinking skills, creativity, imagination, and the entrepreneurial attitude among stay-at-home students, amid Covid-19 concerns. The initiative takes a holistic strategy at enticing students of all ages, from kindergarten till grade 12.

For grade 10 to grade 12, Sheraa has hooked up the Sheraa Online School and Startup Sharjah to introduce students to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. The online entrepreneurship faculty takes students via a 5-week journey of how to construct a business, and the Startup Sharjah competition will see the pinnacle ideas compete for cash prizes. Launching throughout 35 private faculties in Sharjah, the programs end-goal is to assist students come up with impactful ideas that solve troubles under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on solutions most useful for a post-Covid-19 world.

In the Sheraa Online School program, over 200 students in grades 10 to 12 will take part and learn the fundamentals of constructing a business, via online workshops, quizzes, and live Q&A sessions. The 6-part series will consist of vital subjects such as the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, understanding your Business Model Canvas, discovering the fee your idea offers, validating your solution via client interviews, conducting competitor evaluation and constructing your first pitch deck.

Upon completion of the workshops, a Startup Sharjah online competition will be held, which is a month long intensive bootcamp designed to construct a startup, from concept to prototype. The bootcamp will consist of weekly workshops and one-on-one mentorship sessions, covering subjects such as discovering their problem-solution fit, defending their mental property, and launching their startup into the market. The students will additionally be related to pro founders from the Sheraa Alumni community who will assist in mentoring their project introduction process. Twenty shortlisted students will get the opportunity to pitch their tech-enabled business concept in the front of an online judging panel after which the top three will be awarded a cash prize of 10,000 AED, 5,000 AED, and 2,500 AED respectively.

The Kalimat Group will be hosting the Future Authors: Read. Dream. Create competition that allows young creative writers, from grade six to nine, to pen authentic stories about the Emirate of Sharjah, in both Arabic and English. The top three winners will get AED 5000, AED 3000 and AED 1000 respectively.
Students in kindergarten via grade 5 will be taking part in an online competition titled Sharjah Treasures, by recording short video clips showcasing their special skills in the area of performing arts in both Arabic and English. First, second, and third place winners will be awarded cash prizes during the competition, which took place on April 23rd.

Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, said, Our partnership with the Sharjah Private Education Authority similarly enhances our goal to encourage a generation of changemakers by enabling the entrepreneurial mindset of fundamental thinking and creativity to be instilled from an early age. The Future Changemakers Initiative is structured to help students of all ages focus their passions, enhance their talents, and construct an impactful notion that solves critical problems within their communities and effects change for the society as a whole.

Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashimi, Chairperson of SPEA, said: "The Future Changemakers initiative encourages students at home, to make investments their extended learning time towards different innovative areas of interest, following the introduction of distance learning, carried out as part of the precautionary measures taken to curb the spread of coronavirus. We are working tirelessly to set up a paradigm for interacting with students and parents throughout this period in an effort to discover, invest and foster talent.

"We have provided school administrations with adequate time and space to enforce this initiative and have notified parents as well. The initiative includes of three competitions: Sheraa Online School, Sharjah Treasures and Future Authors: Read. Dream. Create each with its own set of suggestions and submission deadlines. "she added.