Tinkering with Tech: Creating pathways for future innovators

About

In a fast-changing world increasingly driven by technology, children and young people need the right skills, knowledge and innovation mindset to succeed and thrive. Education systems around the world are increasingly recognizing  ‘21st century skills’ – also known as life skills, soft skills, social-emotional skills, transversal or transferable skills –as critical skills for children and young people to develop today to be better prepared for the future. These skills include those related to problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and citizenship.

In early 2024, the UNICEF Global Learning Innovation Hub launched the Tinkering with Tech initiative, which is designed to ignite creativity, foster critical 21st century skills and inspire a love for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects, especially among girls, who are traditionally under-represented in these fields, through hands-on experiential learning.

The Tinkering with Tech initiative introduces students and teachers to ‘design thinking’, which is a creative process of problem-solving that involves empathizing, defining challenges, ideating solutions, prototyping, testing and celebrating achievements.

Honduras, Montenegro, Maldives and Viet Nam formed the first cohort of countries to implement the Tinkering with Tech initiative via their UNICEF country offices, with the support of the UNICEF Global Learning Innovation Hub and its partners Arm and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. UNICEF engaged the Micro:bit Educational Foundation to provide technical support for implementing the initiative from August 2024 to March 2025.  This implementation research report underscores the lessons learned from the first years of implementation (2024-2025), providing valuable information as the initiative scales up and replicates these successful pilots.