The world’s only travelling school is on its way to Dubai — ready to offer some cool courses for the young futurists and innovators currently in Grade 10 to 12.
Think Global School is partnering with Dubai to introduce a supplementary 10-week programme, which aims to enhance students’ skills as they take up their regular curriculum. The programme starts in January 2024.
Russell Cailey, managing director of Think Learning Studio, said their Future Leaders and Innovators Programme is being launched in collaboration with the Dubai Future Foundation.
“We’re launching our Future Leaders and Innovators Programme which will be in collaboration with the Dubai Future Foundation, so the Dubai government and project YOU… which is a youth working group out of Expo,” Russell Cailey, managing director of Think Learning Studio, told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of GESS Dubai.
“The UAE has the most exciting urban design studio in the region. So, we will launch a Grade 10 to 12 urban futurist lab and design shooter, which is based on the project-based learning principles of Think Global School.”
How the travelling school works
Based out of four countries, regular students at Think Global School get their education through a combination of real-world exploration, skills, and a project-learning base.
The supplementary programme it has designed for Dubai was “based on its DNA”, Cailey said. “We know that certain students like to be connected to the traditional system, but they’re also dying for a supplementary or an extra programme that can be dynamic.”
Sessions are going to be held on Saturdays with virtual support in the evenings. “It will be built on their existing school experience,” he added.
“We’re not trying to challenge the traditional system in this programme, we’re adding a supplementary layer to it.”
What to expect
Courses on offer will include one on future urbanism and learning as an architect in the first year, with the second year bringing in digital networks and artificial intelligence with a possible wellness stream.
“The certification will come from a combination of the Dubai Future Foundation and our institutions. We’re not heavily loading it in terms of certifications,” added Cailey.
“On the second and the ninth, we have introductory sessions. The content would be for 20 to 25 students who want to come and see us in action and then one can sign up for the full programme in January.”
The programme will be launched on the third Saturday of January.
“It will be a 10-week-long programme. Then students can choose to come back for the second and third studio,” Cailey said.
Students can choose to sign up term by term with three terms in a year.
“Each term is a different challenge. So, the first challenge is smart cities. the second challenge is coastal resilience, and the third challenge is desert housing. How you design all these…will be all challenges within the one-year programme.”
Individuals can either do one, two, or three of these programmes, depending on their interest.