“Children can only aspire to what they know exists.”

Dr Ger Graus OBEDirector of Education, KidZania UK & Global

Making role-play real play:building a creative approach to social mobility

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

Haruki Murakami

KidZania ……

… is an approximately 7,000 square metre (or 75,000 square foot) child-size city

… is designed to empower and inspire children: “from inspiration to aspiration”

… offers real-life, careers awareness, fun role-play experiences for 4 to 14 year old

… is a family of 40+ KidZanias globally - existing and planned

… opened first in Mexico in 1999

… and has since welcomed over 68 million visitors worldwide

Where children …

… can choose to role-play, from more than 60 activities, e.g.

working in a bank

performing on stage

landing an aeroplane

presenting the news

performing a liver transplant

cleaning windows

Formula-E engineering …

and where grown-ups are there to be seen and not heard!!!

Where we are …

Working the data to get us the insights we needed

✓ Working with the data analytics agency Havas helia we took one year’s data from school visits to KidZania London, so we

could understand more children’s natural behaviours and choices, without the influence of accompanying parents/carers

✓ We analysed over 61,000 visiting school children from across the United Kingdom aged 4 to 14 and excluded results for

activities with a participation level of under 1,000 to ensure we were working with statistically robust volumes

✓ We matched schools against government statistics on postcodes for indices of deprivation and identified correlations

between them and the first activities chosen by the children. We used first activities because we felt they reflected best

familiar behaviour patterns in participating children

And now for the findings

o It will come as no surprise to anyone that the gender gap in all its multi-dimensionality is still with us

o This chart shows how girls over-index for first activities on the left and boys over-index for activities on the right. While the

types of activities are interesting (i.e. girls = hotel activities & boys = patrolling [police] & firefighting) …

The gender gap

… the real insight comes from the extremities in the index:

o Are we more encouraging towards boys, giving them the confidence to explore the new, while we are teaching girls to play it

safe and thereby stay in their comfort zone?

o Could this indicate that we are doing a much better job of breaking down the gender barriers with boys than we are with

girls?

o As stereotypes are set at age 4 how do we affect change and who are the key influencers … who are the teachers? Not all

classrooms have walls!

o And as there is relatively little change between the ages of 4 and 14 how does the education system need to re-invent itself?

How do we reverse a hype-over-substance test culture?

o If “children can only aspire to what they know exists” really rings true, how do we all become “change-makers”?

Aspiration and deprivation

o “Children can only aspire to what

they know exists”

Dr Ger Graus OBE

o The data indicates that life

experience influences the first

activity children choose

o Children from schools in low

deprivation areas are more likely

to choose activities at the top of

this chart. While children from

schools in high deprivation areas

are more likely to choose activities

at the bottom of this chart

How we create change

o What this analysis shows us is that there remain key major influences which are impacting our children’s aspirations

o While gender, age, deprivation and geography (and the multi-dimensionality thereof) are substantial barriers which are

difficult for to address, there is light at the end of the tunnel

o Children’s education is the answer. It is the most significant variable in the data that can initiate positive change

Our current education system primes children for a working world that belongs to yesterday

Current full time education

Rote learning

Obedience to rules

Regular testing

Repetition

Current working world

Onboarding

Adherence to policies, instructions

Regular testing

Application of professional skills repeatedly

What do we say to educators?

“Every child is everyone’s responsibility!”Vanessa Langley

Executive Headteacher Arbourthorne & Gleadless Primary Schools Federation, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Private sector and educators need to work hand in glove to drive synergies between the worlds of work and education - building a

creative approach to social mobility has to be at the very core. While educators provide the physical space, national coverage and

curriculum flexibility, private sectors need to provide “investment” and industry insight, i.e. the “why? answers” and “x-factors”

We need to create an ‘education revolution’ and nurture an ‘education evolution’ and encourage our children to stay curious and

recognise other key contributory factors …

Curiosity

Nurturing confidence Creativity and cognitive flexibility

EI: resilience and empathy

Early exposure to opportunity

What next?

✓ We will be working with Havas helia, Stanford University and others on further global in-depth analysis and evaluation in order to

build a Global Barometer of Children’s Aspirations

✓ We will, through our global Think-Tank, lobby and consult with policy makers and key influencers

✓ We will explore and consult with private sector, public and third sectors, schools, parents et al about practical ways forward

✓ We aim to affect change for the better through …

✓ … building a creative approach to social mobility

KidZania’s Think-Tank [so far …]

Dr Asheesh AdvaniCEO - Junior Achievement Worldwide

Dr Bill DraytonFounder, Chair & CEO - Ashoka

Jackie CooperFirst Global Chair, Creative Strategy - Edelman

Thandeka Tutu-GxasheCEO - TutuDesk Campaign

Charles FadelGlobal Education Thought Leader, Futurist, Inventor and Author

Tony LittleCEO - GEMS Education and Former Headmaster -Eton College

Shaheen MistriCEO - Teach for India

Dr Ger Graus OBEGlobal Director of Education - KidZania

Caroline Casey

Activist and Management Consultant[Caroline is legally blind due to ocular albinism]

And there are other friends too …

Professor John Siraj-BlatchfordCo-Founder - SchemaPlay & Visiting Scholar - National Chung Hsing University Taiwan

Sir Ken RobinsonAuthor, Speaker & International Advisor on Education in the Arts

Professoressa Carla RinaldiPresident - Reggio Children Foundation

Professor Carol DweckProfessor of Psychology - Stanford University

“Children need to be able to write their own narratives of the possible.”

Professor Carla Rinaldi

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Dr Ger Graus OBEDirector of Education, KidZania UK & Global

ger.graus@kidzania.com+44 7958 876 191

Thank you!