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UAE: New gamified mobile app to teach 1 million youths to fight climate change

The platform aims to enhance employability as well

As many as one million young people will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to fight climate change in their communities, schools, and workplaces through an online platform, SkillUP, by 2030. This is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Masdar rolled out Y4S in 2020 to empower future generations of local and global sustainability leaders under the patronage of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, Member of Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office.

The newly launched Y4S SkillUP platform harnesses the appeal of a gamified mobile app to engage young people in the fight against climate change by offering them accessible, self-paced opportunities to develop skills critical to achieving the SDGs, while also enhancing their employability in a transitioning global economy.

Dr. Lamya Nawaf Fawwaz, Masdar Executive Director of Brand and Strategic Initiatives said, "Empowering young people to become sustainability champions is the core mission for Y4S as we at Masdar recognise that young people have significant untapped potential to drive sustainable change, and it’s critical that we educate and prepare them now to meaningfully contribute to our global energy transition.

By leveraging the latest in educational technology, the Y4S SkillUp platform provides 42 hours of self-paced learning and engagement opportunities, from video presentations to information materials, activity sheets, and interactive quizzes all of which center around the more than 20 specific skills identified in Y4S’s Future Skills 2030 Report as being relevant and necessary to achieving the SDGs.

SkillUp users can complete specific courses to earn certificates for each of the 20+ skills, which span five broad categories: knowledge, personal, people, cognitive, and design thinking. Within each category, focus areas include STEM knowledge, critical reasoning, digital fluency, innovative thinking, collaborative mindset, new media literacy, ecological ethos, entrepreneurship, self-promotion, problem-solving, active learning, resilience, and adaptability, cross-cultural competency, leadership, people management, communication, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, public speaking, sense-making, interpretive skills, design thinking, and creativity.

The SkillUp platform’s ‘Innovate with Y4S Unit’ also offers users self-paced guided lessons about each of the 17 SDGs, for which they then have the opportunity to define SDG-related challenges in their daily lives and pitch workable solutions for their communities, schools, and workplaces.

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