23.10.2019
- This year's Generation NOW donation program has officially started training mentors across Croatia
- Generation NOW is being implemented this year under the official auspices of the Ministry of Science and Education
- All educational institutions in Croatia will be offered the first complete STEM curriculum adapted to lower and upper primary and secondary schools
Mentors of Generation NOW from Zagreb and neighboring counties area with representatives of Hrvatski Telekom and IRIM
Yesterday, training mentors as part of the fourth donation competition Generation NOW officially commenced at the training center of Hrvatski Telekom. 20-odd mentors from selected educational institutions in Zagreb and surrounding counties gathered for the training and specific equipment needed to work on IoT projects were donated to them on this occasion. Trainings and equipment are also organized to mentors in other parts of Croatia.
This year, 170 educational institutions from all over Croatia applied for the donation contest of Hrvatski Telekom and the Institute for Youth Development and Innovation. Considering the record number of interested parties, Hrvatski Telekom has decided to include almost three times as many institutions as last year - 110 schools, associations and libraries and donate the equipment and funding needed to design IoT projects. This time again, a significant contribution in the form of STEM trainings for mentors and constant expert support will be provided by the Institute for Youth Development and Innovation, a long-standing partner of Hrvatski Telekom in this initiative. In addition to the record number of participants who have applied and been selected, this year's program is also unique in that educations and donations are, for the first time, tailored to three categories - students in the lower grades of primary schools, upper classes and high school students. Also, IRIM will provide the first STEM curriculum available to all program participants, but also to those who are not yet part of the Generation NOW, which they can apply in teaching. As of this year, the program is being implemented under the official auspices of the Ministry of Science and Education.
Generation NOW is a donation program carried out by Hrvatski Telekom and the Institute for Youth Development and Innovation to successfully prepare young people for the future. The goal of the donation program is to integrate existing and emerging tech knowledge in the design of creative IoT projects, to develop creativity, to foster innovation, and to provide many opportunities for students to develop their own projects.
Hrvatski Telekom is one of the first companies to recognize the importance of systematically and comprehensively promoting STEM education in Croatian schools. Since the launch of the project in 2004, around 300 projects have been supported with nearly 10 million kunas, which have contributed positively to various segments of the society. In the last four years of implementation, donations, and educations have been focused on STEM, and in cooperation with partner IRIM, STEM knowledge has been transferred with the latest methods and with the help of the latest technologies to more than two thousand students across Croatia.
“Children are our future. All of us in society are obliged to provide them with an environment in which to develop their full potential. That is why this program makes the latest knowledge and technology more accessible and enables children across Croatia to positively influence the communities in which they live in their creativity and innovation,” said Nina Išek Međugorac, Director of Corporate Communications Department at Hrvatski Telekom.
“Continuing with IRIM's distinctive hand-on approach, we educate mentors to use different technologies and design creative IoT projects. In addition to introductory and advanced educations and creative challenges, we provide full expert and technical support to mentors during the project and support them to realize their own project ideas,” added Paolo Zenzerović, Head of Business at the Institute for Youth Development and Innovation.