Inspire Africa Group, a South African based foundation has launched Inspire S.T.E.A.M. program for schools in South Africa. Inspire S.T.E.A.M stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. It uses drone operation and programming to aid the experiences of SA students from age 8 upwards in discovering; design, programming, operation and evaluation, by including STEAM in their curriculum. This application leaves them with a core skill and a better comprehension of what the role and value of STEAM is and how they can be applied.
CEO of Inspire Africa Group Simon Robinson said “The future of our economy relies greatly on people with STEAM skills. Africa hemorrhages cross-cultural talent in STEAM disciplines from as early as primary school. This means that we are not drawing on 100% of our talent pool in STEAM careers, and our economy will suffer from the lack of diversity.”
The 4th industrial revolution has come with technologies such as VR, AI, IOT, and AR, which is supporting new careers in numerous industry sectors. The benefit of drone technology goes beyond tech-savvy consumers and defense organizations. Many hazardous high-paying jobs in the commercial sectors are being displaced by drone technology as it becomes increasingly accessible as it offers safer and more affordable solution. Drone has a potential value of over 127 billion USD. The Inspire S.T.E.A.M is a valuable introduction into the future as it extends the disciplines and as well create unexplored career opportunities.
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Robinson also said “We want to get the youth of today excited about drones, drone technology and the aviation industry by providing the opportunity for the youth to learn new skills and use these skills in their future development and employment. It is important that private industry supports our government’s focus on developing STEAM in our schools and Inspire S.T.E.A.M. is our product designed to do just that. While the costs associated with the programme are more easily managed by independent schools, with government support funding, there is no barrier to this programme being incorporated into all South African schools to directly support STEAM needs.”
“In addition to this, we are currently in negotiation with parties creating an opportunity for corporate social responsibility funding to be able to offer this programme to all our scholars. However, this does not mitigate the need for the government’s participation to introduce this programme to all schools in South Africa, as the effort will require multiple funding streams” He said.