The 2016 Go Robot programme, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education partnership between Maersk Oil Qatar, College of the North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q) and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, has been launched.

Hundreds of teachers have begun intensive training workshops to help prepare their students ahead of the Qatar National Robot Olympiad, to be held later in the year.

“Since the programme began in 2012, it has grown by more than 700%. It is expected that in 2016, a record 800 teachers and 10,000 students will participate,” according to a statement.

With the launch of this year’s training programme, Go Robot is marking its fifth year and has “quickly become the leading STEM programme in Qatar, which is helping develop and inspire the country’s next generation of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs”, the statement notes.

Commenting on Go Robot’s success and popularity, Dr Ken MacLeod, president of CNA-Q, said: “The programme’s success can be seen in the students as they come alive with the thrill of designing and operating robots. Year after year, students compete in Qatar’s National Robot Olympiad with stronger abilities and more experience. Last year, Qatar saw impressive results when young Qataris competed in the World Robot Olympiad, and we are expecting a similar outcome again this year.”

Explaining why the company has been such an enduring sponsor of the programme, Lewis Affleck, managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar, noted: “Go Robot has enabled us to develop and nurture thousands of young people in science and engineering skills, helping build the next generation who will drive a dynamic and diversified knowledge-based economy. The results so far have been incredible and we are extremely proud to be sponsors of this programme.”

Dr Theodore Chiasson, dean of information technology at CNA-Q, who has been running the Go Robot programme since it began, added: “The technology is helping improve teaching practices and the learning environment, which is becoming increasingly based on practical problem-solving.”

The approach Go Robot takes to using technology as a positive enabler for learning will be reinforced further in May during the seventh ICT in Education Conference, also part of the Go Robot programme. This will provide three days of professional development workshops in using technology in education for more than 600 teachers.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has also recognised the benefit of this approach to the use of technology in learning, and has now introduced robotics into the national curriculum - which means that all students in grades through three to 10 are learning about robotics each week in school.

As a result of these successes of Go Robot, the programme will expand into new areas of STEM skills training and technology in 2016, the statement adds.