Chief Marketing Officer of TouchStar Media, Ramon Dummett, is encouraging Barbadians to get children more involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
Dummett explained that TouchStar Media was launching a new initiative called the Kid Coder Programme which would focus on teaching skills in robotics and computer technology in a bid to impart critical skills to the youth.
“We will focus on the four C’s – that’s communication, collaboration and critical thinking and creativity – the 21st Century skills that are necessary for our kids right now. We are trying to equip this generation for what lies ahead,” he said.
He was speaking from his booth during the launch of the Barbados Manufacturer Association’s Trade and Innovation Expo yesterday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. It featured a robot that children could control with a tablet.
“So we’re using coding and robotics to bring it to life,” he continued, “to take it away from the mundane, just sitting down and writing lines of code, so they can actually make the connection and see the real life effects of something that they can write and see it come to life with robots and robots moving.”
Dummett added that this would be the start of what he expected to be a long lasting partnership with the government of Barbados, since they both shared the same goal of ensuring that children would have a head start going into the work force.
“Our goals are the same, even though we are private, which is to make sure that our workforce is more skilled and they’re more competitive. So we’re looking at doing some more exhibitions and competitions and so on with the government to bring a lot of awareness and to bring a lot of excitement and energy to coding and robotics,” he explained. (JK)
