UOB donates S$500,000 to fund bootcamp for students

Singapore

UOB HAS donated a sum of S$500,000 to support the inaugural My Digital Bootcamp programme, an initiative that will benefit some 1,000 upper-primary students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Central Singapore district.

The funds were raised through UOB Group Commercial Banking's annual Lunar New Year fundraising drive with its clients earlier this year.

My Digital Bootcamp was launched on Tuesday morning at Townsville Primary School by Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran.

In a news release, the Central Singapore Community Development Council said that participants of My Digital Bootcamp will pick up digital-making skills in a fun and engaging manner to prepare them for an increasingly competitive and technologically advanced world.

The skills learnt in this workshop will go beyond current school and community-based coding programmes.

The children will pick up skills to create using technology, and also be exposed to logical reasoning, algorithmic thinking, pattern recognition, abstraction, decomposition, debugging or problem-solving.

At the end of the workshop, each child receives a digital-making kit comprising a coding card game, "micro:bit" device, programmable smart car, 3-D pen and other resource materials.

In a short speech at the event, Mr Iswaran stressed the importance of ensuring that no one gets left behind as Singapore presses on with its mission towards becoming a Smart Nation. "We want all our children, in every segment of our society, to be active participants in this digital future to derive its full benefits," he said. "Everyone can benefit from, and has a role to play in Singapore's digital future."

UOB's head of group commercial banking Eric Tham said the bank believes in the power of education to change lives and communities for the better. "It enables individuals to overcome challenges and to seize opportunities. As such, we have been supporting initiatives that develop young minds, especially those of children from disadvantaged backgrounds," he said.

Central Singapore mayor Denise Phua said: "Equipping Singaporeans with skills to navigate the evolving digital landscape is essential. Children are no exception. Regardless of their starting points in life, they too should be given equal opportunities to learn new skills."

My Digital Bootcamp will be progressively rolled out from the middle of September onwards. More than 10 schools in the Central Singapore district have already signed up for the programme, which will be conducted during the post-examination period and school holidays.