#MyDigitalMaker Virtual Fair 2020 Opens with Goal of Pushing Malaysia’s Digital Skills for Youth Agenda
By Digital News Asia October 4, 2020
- Extends pursuit of cultivating interest in digital skills and capabilities
- Also feature job-matching platform to prepare next-gen workforce
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) will be running this year’s #MyDigitalMaker Fair virtually from tomorrow, Oct 5 to Oct 11, 2020. Called the #MyDigitalMaker Virtual Fair 2020, with the theme – ‘Digital Skills Today, Workplace of Tomorrow’, it has attracted participation from countries across four different continents with over 50 ecosystem partners supporting the event. The goal of the event: to future-proof careers of today’s Malaysian youth.
#MyDigitalMaker Fair is an annual hands-on, minds-on annual extravaganza event designed to drive forward and celebrate the national #myDigitalMaker movement. This event, a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity, and innovation, highlights the best practices, success stories and achievements of teachers and students from across the country.
Across the whole of next week, #MyDigitalMaker will have a variety of exciting virtual booth exhibitions, webinars, workshops, tutorials and competitions. Topics for the talks and discussions have been curated to cater to the needs of different age groups. For the younger students, they can sign up for workshops like “Can I hear someone talking on the moon?” As for secondary-level students and those who are interested in robotics, they will want to check out the National Robotics League 2020 competition.
There are webinars too for parents and educators, such as on “Early Exposure to Digital Making” and “The Classroom of the Future”.
One of the highlights this year will be a webinar series known as #KitaMalaysia, a close look at five everyday Malaysians who are making waves through their work involving tech. Karan Singh for example is a deaf and mute boy who made use of his design skills to create a face mask extender utilising 3D printing for fabrication; simply to help his father wear the mask more comfortably over his turban.
One other unique feature for this year is the introduction of the Achievement Board – a system that allows visitors to stay engaged throughout the seven days. Daily tasks are assigned to participants and they must accomplish them all to stand a chance to win a cash prize of US$720 (RM3,000) and many other digital making prizes.
“When the #myDigitalMaker Movement was introduced in 2016, MDEC – together with the Ministry of Education and other like-minded organisations – embarked on a mission to ensure all Malaysian youths are ready for jobs of the future. Today I am glad to say that this movement has impacted over 1.3 million students nationwide and, from these numbers, some are emerging as champions in global competitions. This is very much in line with MDEC’s focus to cultivate curious minds and accelerate the development of digitally-skilled Malaysians. After all, the goal is to ensure these youths, their parents and educators can better understand and gain immediate access to these digital platforms and services,” says Surina Shukri, CEO, MDEC.
MDEC, and its ecosystem partners, will be hosting the #MyDigitalMaker Fair for the fourth time on a fully virtual platform due to the ongoing pandemic and in adherence towards social distancing requirements. Besides working with its main collaborator – Engage Media – other partners include CIMB Group, micro:bit Educational Foundation, Leaderonomics, Bett Asia, Microsoft, Petrosains, Apple Distinguished Educator, and more. All of them have come together with the goal of producing highly engaging content to give visitors an immersive virtual experience.
“With Covid-19 still an active threat, we’ve seen even greater interest in digital maker activities. There’s been a ten-fold increase in the number of website visitors since the start of MCO,” Surina adds.
The #MyDigitalMaker Virtual Fair 2020 is made possible with the involvement of the Digital Maker Association, Premier Digital Tech Institutions (PDTI) as well as public and private sector ecosystem partners.
For more information on the #mydigitalmaker Movement, please visit https://mydigitalmakerfair.com/
