DID YOU KNOW?

“Children lose up to 40% of the gains they have made over the school year while on summer break, according to a recent study” – Forbes. 

This implies that after children have spent so much time and effort learning new things in school, they tend to go back home during the summer period and forget up to 40% of the things they have learned. Discoveries like this are very scary. It makes one begin to wonder how to prevent such from happening. 

But before you begin to blame your child for forgetting so much, you should note that losing knowledge during the summer period is normal, especially in countries where they have long summer breaks. This is called Summer Learning Loss or Summer Slide. It’s a simple reality – Without constant practice, knowledge and skills acquired fade away.

Some students indeed lose so much knowledge during the summer period. But one way to avoid such is to make accurate use of the summer period by learning new and exciting things? This way they learn more to prevent summer slide. These are the students who resume back to school with an added advantage over others. Have you ever noticed children who always outsmart their mates in class and you wonder how they do it? The secret is that they invest their summer holidays into learning while others are resting and having fun only.

Shouldn’t the summer period be for resting and having fun?

You’re right! The summer period should be for relaxing. But should it also be an opportunity for children to have so much fun and resume back to school with less knowledge than they had before the summer break? No, that’s not right. It’s best if they are engaged in a summer activity they see as fun, that way they learn something new and have fun at the same time. 

What best way to learn something new, impactful, and fun than the GATE Academy annual summer program. Aspire 3.0

ASPIRE 3.0 is a summer boot camp that develops your wards Tech, digital, language and soft skills. This year’s edition is even more impactful than last year as we have added courses and soft skills that are relevant in this post covid – era. The program is designed to keep your wards educationally fit and stimulate their creativity. This year’s programs will be held both physically and virtually to accommodate any schedule. This is a certificate awarded program and the certificate can be used for college application. 

What are the available skills to learn in our program?

Tech skills include;

• Animation
• Game design
• Web design
• Robotics
• Graphics design and UI/UX

Digital skills include;

• Storytelling / Social media marketing
• Writing skills/ Digital marketing

Language include;

• Mandarin
• French
• Spanish

Soft skills include;

• Career development
• Entrepreneurship
• Emotional intelligence
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Financial literacy

Animation:

Animation is the process of making still images – like drawings or inanimate objects – to perform an action. If you’ve watched cartoons before then you know what animation is. However, animation has gone beyond just entertainment in today’s world.

Animation can be used in any industry where information needs to be passed across to an audience and most likely, entertain them. These industries include the education, marketing, and even manufacturing industry (where virtual models of various products need to be developed.)

Kids who are creative, imaginative, and love drawing are a good fit for learning animation. It opens doors to career opportunities like character animation, visual effects, marketing, etc

Game design: 

Have you seen children play some amazing games that help them learn better and faster? Yes, your child can design games like that. If you think your child is a game addict, now is the perfect chance to put that wide range of gaming knowledge into good use.

Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. It requires understanding between the player, mechanics, and systems. Game design is a subset of the field of video game development which includes applying designs that support the idea behind a game and bring it to life. Skills needed to be a game designer includes: a strong passion for video games, artistic vision, and creativity

Robotics:

Robotics can sound very complicated, and this is the reason why many people drift away from it. However, it’s a very great field especially if your child loves engineering and tech. Robotics is simply a field that involves making robots that assist humans to perform tasks. It includes conceptualizing, designing, programming, making, and using a robot. Robotics spans across various industries such as Medicine, Mining, Manufacturing, Defence industries to name a few. 

If your child loves to create and invent things, learning robotics can be a pretty good start. Your child could be the next Einstein or Newton!

Graphics Design: 

Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. Graphic designs are everywhere – in your office or school, on the road, in your house, on your phone, and most times, on you! – your clothes. Good design is always attractive, and as humans, we love to see visually attractive images. Graphics design is a skill that is in high demand. This means that with proper mastery of the skill, even children can create designs and get paid!

Graphics design can be specifically used in books, fliers, billboards, websites, infographics, and even cover designs for products. Kids who enjoy drawing and making cool designs, whether in text or images, are a good fit to learn graphics design.

Graphics designers all over the world are needed to work as multi-designer designers, web designers, logo designers, brand designers, layout artists, entrepreneurs, etc.

UI UX;

Have you used a website or an app before? In case you don’t know, you’re currently on GATE Academy’s website. Before this page was published live, we had to go through a lot of processes to make sure it’s perfect for everyone who comes here.

Can you see how this page looks very organized and appealing? That’s what UI or User Interface means. It has to do with what the user sees on the website page or app.

Now, do you notice how easy it is for you to navigate through this website too? That is what UX or User Experience means. This one has to do with the ease of interacting with a website or app which gives the user an awesome experience while making use of it. 

Learning this skill would be a great fit if your child has an eye for details, beautiful designs, and problem-solving.

Languages: 

Research shows that those who go ahead to learn a new language tend to have lower rates of dementia and other memory loss problems later in life. Who knew that learning a new language had health benefits?

Anyway, learning any language is fun and interesting. At ASPIRE 3.0, the language module includes 3 languages. They include French, Spanish, and Mandarin. Children who know how to speak other languages can get signed up on some freelancing sites where they get to write or transcribe from one language to another, or even teach others how to speak either of the languages in which they are fluent. Learning a new language opens the door to endless possibilities. 

Web design:

We already talked about UI/UX, but that is just one aspect of setting up a website. Website design has to do with creating designs specifically for a website while putting the goal of that website in mind and communicating effectively with visitors. Children can now learn web design without the complexities of coding!

Website designers come up with interesting ways to make a website look and feel better. You should consider your child learning website design if he/she loves to make things simple and good-looking.

Designs have several specifications, So if your child uses the web very often and has gotten familiar with it, he/she could learn how to create designs that make a website fun and easy to use. 

Digital marketing and writing

Gone are the days of traditional marketing where marketers had to go from door to door to speak directly to customers so they could sell their products or services. With the advent of digital marketing, anything can be sold without leaving the four walls of your home or office. 

Anyone who has the skills to use digital means to market and sell things is seriously needed in the world today. If you’ve noticed that your child likes to make and sell things, digital marketing is the right skill for them. Effective writing is also important when it comes to digital marketing because most times, writing skills like copywriting will be required. Digital marketing uses multiple channels and technologies that allow an organization to analyze campaigns, content, and strategy to understand what’s working and what isn’t. If your ward loves spending time on the internet and is not interested in coding, this is a skill he/ she can harness. 

Social media marketing/storytelling

Social media has become the easiest and fastest way to reach a wide range of audiences right in their homes. Social media marketing is simply modern marketing. It is a form of digital marketing that uses social media channels to market a product or service. Top brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, etc are at the forefront, using social media to increase awareness and grow their business.

As companies are trying to leverage social media, the demand for social media marketers has increased. With this new norm, your children who seem to use social too much can now use it as a means to get paid. 

Storytelling found its way into social media marketing because a lot of marketers became very money-centered when trying to market products, and they ended up making so much noise. Companies and individuals have now turned to storytelling to communicate effectively and arouse customer interest. If your child likes taking pictures and being on the internet, this is a good skill to tap into because content creation and marketing go hand in hand with social media. 

Soft skills: 

Soft skills are skills that are relevant to how one works. These skills aren’t tied to any profession, and this makes it necessary for every employee to have them. It might seem like these skills aren’t necessary for children yet, but they are. We are preparing them for a better future, aren’t we?

The soft skills that we are offering at ASPIRE 3.0 include emotional development, critical thinking, and problem-solving, entrepreneurial and career development. These are some of the skills that’d give children an edge over others when job opportunities arise later in life.

• Career Development

This refers to collection of programmes
that helps individuals to allign their needs and goals with future opportunities in an organization.

Career development is a necessity for individuals who would like to be relevant in whatever organization they find themselves.

• Entrepreneurship

It’s no doubt that some people aren’t made for 9-5 jobs. Your children could be one of them, but making such assumption is very wrong.

When your kids partake in this program, they’ll be exposed to what entrepreneurship entails. This will also help them clarify if it’s a path that they’d love to tread.

• Financial literacy

Anyone who isn’t financially literate in today’s world is bound to always lose a lot of money. Many people have said that making money isn’t hard, but properly managing could be very difficult. Being financial literate means that you have the right knowledge and confidence to make the right financial decisions. 

This is a very important skill for your child. No one is too small to know the right way to invest and grow money. Any child can be financially independent. 

You can help your child(ren) make the best of this summer by investing their time into learning skills that would make them better people in the future. 

What was the outcome of Aspire 3.0?

When Does ASPIRE 3.0 begin and end?

Our summer program comes in two batches which last for 3 weeks each. The first batch commences on the 26th of July 2021 and runs through till the 13th of August while the 2nd batch commences on the 16th of August and runs through till the 3rd of September. 

How to register?