London-based Dr. Ger Graus is director of education and partnerships at KidZania Global, a Mexico-based company which has 24 indoor educational and entertainment theme parks worldwide, where over 68 million children have augmented their education through real life role-play activities in numerous careers and industries. KidZanias offer simulated role-playing activities for over 100 vocations and professions — pilot, surgeon, radio-presenter, fire-fighter, etc. — in replicas of real-world industries. KidZania theme parks are miniature cities complete with paved roads, battery-operated cars, buildings and their own currency.

Mexico City-based entrepreneur Xavier Lopez Ancona (an alum of the Kellogg School of Management, Illinois and former vice president of General Electric) established the first KidZania centre in 1999, at a shopping mall in Mexico City under the name and style of La Ciudad de los Ninos (‘The City of Children’). In India, KidZania theme parks are sited in Mumbai (estb.2013) and Noida (2016). 

Newspeg. Dr. Graus was in India last October to deliver the keynote address ‘Not all classrooms have four walls’ at the KidZania Education Summit held in Delhi. “Children learn best when they are engaged in hands-on and role play activities. For instance in KidZania theme parks, children learn about money while earning, spending and saving kidZos — the KidZania currency — and operating bank accounts,” says Graus.

History. An alumnus of the Katholieke Universiteit, the Netherlands, in 1983 Graus accepted an offer to teach German in the UK and has since made the country his home. Over a three-decade career in the UK, Graus among other important positions, served as a member of the government’s national curriculum working group for modern foreign languages. In 2007, he was appointed founder-chief executive of an award-winning international charity, the Children’s University Trust (estb.2007). Subsequently in 2014, he was appointed director of KidZania, London. Last March, he was promoted to director (education) of KidZania Global.

Direct talk. “There is a deep correlation between role play by children and the career choices they make as adults. Children can only aspire to become what they know exists. If you don’t know about books, you will never become a librarian. Therefore at KidZania, our objective is to expand their awareness of the plethora of career options available to them,” says Graus, who was conferred the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014. 

Future plans. Given his extensive experience of education, Graus believes it’s vitally important to research children’s careers aspirations and introduce career counseling in schools at an early age. “Our research shows that stereotypes influence children at age four, so why wait for another ten years to start talking to them about careers? We are making a plea to the British government to start career choices awareness in schools at age five. We want to build momentum with the support of schools to adopt this globally,” says Graus. 

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)