What’s KidZania Singapore like Behind the Scenes?
The world-famous kids’ theme park sensation — KidZania — has finally arrived on the sunny shores of Singapore this April! Built to resemble a complete kid-sized city, KidZania Singapore offers your kids the marvelous opportunity to role-play as working adults in many fields (and earn income during the process too!). From firefighters to chefs to pilots — this is a magical land where all the children’s dreams come true! What’s more, they get to learn and play at the same time as they explore the challenges and rewards of every job.
How KidZania works:
• Various job stations are scattered throughout the KidZania City for children to learn more about the jobs from the crew and experience them first-hand.
• Most job stations have strictly-for-kids-only access so parents can either wait outside or chill out at the Parents’ Lounge. Some do invite parents to join in the fun as the audience though.
- Each job task takes between 20–40 minutes, after which kids can expect a salary (paid in the KidZanian currency, KidZos). Stipends are differentiated based on the jobs they take on. Kids can even attend the KidZanian University and earn extra income for selected jobs upon “graduation”!
- For more information, check out this splendidly comprehensive article by blogger CheekieMonkie!
Now that you roughly know how KidZania works, do you wonder… What the most popular “careers” are? How the KidZanian pay rates are fixed? How KidZania Singapore differs from its counterparts in other countries?
LittleLives asks Mr. Leong Yue Weng, General Manager of KidZania Singapore, to answer these burning questions and more!
After its establishment in more than 20 other countries, KidZania is now finally in Singapore! How is KidZania Singapore different from the other KidZania locations?
There are many unique features about KidZania Singapore. What sets us apart most is the experience that we deliver — in terms of the level of realism, and how we infuse life skills through role-playing within a safe and fun environment.
KidZania Singapore is designed to provide kids with realistic role-play activities that complement school learning experiences with a diverse range of more than 60 role-play activities.
Best suited for children aged 4 and above, KidZania Singapore aims to empower and educate kids to dream big and make decisions on their own through taking on “adult” jobs and activities. They get to engage in real-life scenarios in a kid-sized city where they can also earn and manage kidZos, the official currency of KidZania.
Amongst the 24 KidZania locations around the world, KidZania Singapore is also unique in the following:
1. The only stand-alone KidZania in the world that is constructed on a purpose-built building located on an island resort (Sentosa).
2. The only KidZania to showcase a full-wing fuselage of a Boeing 737 aircraft within its city.
3. The only KidZania to offer a flight simulator experience of two of most iconic planes in the aviation industry, the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
4. The first KidZania to have a Peranakan Museum and a mix of 17 familiar local brands to give guests a KidZanian experience that is unique to Singapore’s heritage and culture.
5. The second KidZania to feature a Mountaineering School, and one of the few KidZania to have a Stadium which doubles up as an interesting event space for corporate use as well.
We hear that many preschools are planning on school trips to your theme park. How do you find the response to KidZania Singapore?
Since KidZania Singapore’s opening on 12 April, the park is close to 90% full on weekends (the park can host up to 1,500 people a day!), with tickets sold out on selected days. On weekdays, the numbers are supplemented by group visits from schools and Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWO). Educators in particular have been very excited about visiting KidZania Singapore, as it offers an out-of-classroom hands-on learning experience that complements school-based curriculum learning for their students.
What are the most popular careers among the kids who’ve visited?
The most popular role-play activities in KidZania Singapore are those belonging to the public services (firefighters and policeman), aviation industry (pilots), and Sports related (soccer player and mountaineer). Establishments with giveaways are also very popular with kids, such as the Ice Cream factory where kids can take home an ice cream, and the Pizza shop where kids get to make and eat their own pizza.
Is there a difference between career preferences of kids of different genders and age groups?
Being accessible to all is one of our key principles at KidZania, and hence most of our role-play activities have been designed for kids aged 4–17 regardless of their gender and learning abilities. Only a handful of selected activities will require the advanced reading and cognitive skills of an older kid (7 and above), or a minimum height requirement due to the physical nature of the activities.
Kids aged 2–3 can participate in the workshops and non-role-play activities at 2 designated toddler areas, the Kindergarten and RightZKeepers Residence.
What goes behind the creation of a KidZanian role-play job for the kids?
KidZania functions like a real city, filled with activities that kids would not only enjoy doing and learning from but also learn to appreciate the different jobs that make a City work.
To build a realistic city, we approached a variety of brands from a range of industries who share a common mission in wanting to make a difference in the lives of our future generation. Each activity is designed in close consultation with the brands, leveraging on their industry expertise to optimise the realism aspect, and with education experts from our network of KidZania cities to incorporate learnings that each child can take away for each activity.
As with real-world jobs, the amount of KidZos that kids earn is based on the complexity of the activity and the need for any advanced skills. Kids not only have the freedom to choose their “jobs”, but also have the freedom of choice in how they want to spend their kidZos — Spend it to acquire a new skill, purchase services or items, or save it in the bank — the choice is theirs to make.
What’s more, as KidZos is the official currency of KidZania, it can be used at any of the 24 KidZania locations in the world without any loss in currency exchange.
Why did KidZania choose to set up a new location in Singapore?
KidZania’s take at education through entertainment — or edutainment in short –appeals to families who are seeking a different theme park experience, especially in South East Asia where there is an abundance of traditional theme park offerings.
Singapore was chosen to be the 23rd KidZanian City for its status as the region’s hub, which offers us the opportunity to reach out to both local families, as well as families travelling to Singapore with children. In addition, the park’s location at Sentosa’s Palawan Beach area is strategic, as Sentosa is positioned as a family-friendly island destination.
Increasingly, we are seeing a growing demand by families for attractions that offer more than just fun for their children. The situation is similar here in Singapore, and we believe that KidZania Singapore will meet this need.
To end off, can you share with us any plans to create more jobs for our precious KidZanians to role-play? Perhaps jobs of the future? :)
KidZania is a place where big dreams start for kids, and just like a real city, it will evolve over time. We will be introducing new role-play activities in the coming months, and even refresh current ones, to offer kids a different experience each time they step into the city. As part of our approach towards realism, KidZania does not offer any “profession” or “job” that is not currently available in the world. For example, at KidZania Moscow, kids can become an astronaut and fly to the moon but they are not able to fly to Mars.
Thank you, Mr. Leong, for the wonderful Behind-the-Scenes interview with KidZania Singapore!
Make a trip to KidZania Singapore with your family for fun-filled adventures you’d all love! Visit their official website for more information!
SOURCES
KidZania Singapore
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KidZania Singapore
