Commensurate education programs for the next generations in Serbia – Kliker
- Organizational Lead, Team Member Miloš Paunović Co-founder Razlivalište milos.paunovic@socialimpactaward.net
IT sector is on the rise in Serbia, as the emerging and creative startup scene has generated a lot of interest. However, the classroom is not following this trend. Kids […]
The concept is to offer commercial courses and part of that money is used to finance courses for underprivileged kids and social groups and to hire students and young engineers who want to teach kids and help with developing our programs
“Idea about Kliker – Center for creative thinking started as a combination of two things: social entrepreneurship model that was suitable for applying on Social Impact Award 2015 contest and necessity to show kids in Serbia that everybody can learn at least basic concepts of computer programming and, more importantly, that everybody deserves a chance to learn.
Knowing that in developed countries kids as young as seven years old are learning how to code, and in Serbia they don’t start until they are 13 years old, it was clear to us that we have to offer that kind of education here. We also want to include robotics, 3D printing and electronics in our curriculum, because we think that this kind of education is also lacking in our school system and it’s becoming more important in 21st century.
The concept is to offer commercial courses and part of that money is used to finance courses for underprivileged kids and social groups and to hire students and young engineers who want to teach kids and help with developing our programs.
Nearly six months since first course started we now offer our program in one more city, teaching courses in one private company for kids of the employees, developing new courses and have seven motivated team members. Approximately 200 kids attended and still attend our programs and more than 150 kids attended our free workshops.
Our goal in the future is to start our programs in several cities in Serbia, to develop more courses and to make a web site that will provide material, tutorials and advice for parents and kids who are interested in IT and new technologies in general.
We think that our biggest achievement so far is getting scholarship from private IT high school for one of many underprivileged kids that we teach. It will set an example that everybody can learn coding and that hard work will pay off.
Going through SIA experience validated and improved our idea and gave us chance to meet amazing people that inspired and motivated us. Thanks to that positive impulse we now collaborate on several projects with NGOs, private companies, Hubs and other individuals who want to support our mission.”
