Starting September, local students and educators will have free access to the online inspiration platform BecomingX Education, a project co-created by international survival and adventure enthusiast Bear Grylls.
Local firm KPMG has donated one year’s subscription to the platform for all schools, private and public, allowing Cayman educators to make use of the over 140 lessons and resources. The video interviews and activities are aimed at engaging and inspiring students to achieve their potential.
“Success is so rarely the result of ‘innate talent’ or academic performance – it’s more often about equipping yourself with the right skills, learning how to bring people on side, and about developing massive resilience. We’re so proud to work with KPMG to roll out BecomingX Education across Cayman, as we know it helps to inspire and equip students to become the very best versions of themselves,” Grylls said through a statement shared with the Cayman Compass.
Platform for success
With 400 schools globally using BecomingX Education, KPMG Director Sean Cowan said having access to such an exciting platform will do wonders for Cayman’s future leaders.
“KPMG is proud to provide BecomingX Education to every school across the Cayman Islands. We’re passionate about investing in the communities in which we work and see this as a great investment in the next generation – supporting schools, teachers and students and helping develop the skills and attitudes to help them thrive in life,” he said in a written statement.
Cayman is first in the region to have access to the platform on such a wide scale, Cowan said.
This week, BecomingX Education co-Founder and CEO Paul Gurney, together with the KPMG and Literacy Is For Everyone (LIFE) teams have been hosting sessions with local educators and Education officials to introduce the platform.
The platform also covers assemblies and activities from Years 4-13.
Gurney, speaking with the Compass at a special session with private school officials on Thursday at KPMG’s office in Cricket Square, said he was proud of the platform being introduced to Cayman and the Caribbean.
“BecomingX is an education social enterprise set to help young people to realize their potential, to understand what it really takes to succeed and to be able to build the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and relationships to succeed in life,” he said.
Gurney said the platform, which was three years in development, is a “Netflix” for schools and featured short interview videos with the world’s most inspiring and iconic people.
“BecomingX is all about helping people to realize their potential,” he said, adding that the films on the platform feature the world’s most inspiring and iconic people from presidents, Olympic gold medalists, Nobel Peace prize winners to people who have come from some of the toughest backgrounds imaginable and “went on to do incredible things in their lives”.
Inspiration through innovation
The BecomingX team also did a special presentation of the platform on Friday morning at the Education Ministry’s annual Education Professionals welcome ceremony.
Through the KPMG statement, Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said the Ministry was “delighted” that every school across Cayman will have access to the resource.
“This is the first country-wide roll out of BecomingX Education anywhere in the world and will provide every school and every student with world-class personal development resources. We passionately believe that every child in Cayman has the potential to achieve incredible things and we’re proud to be collaborating on cutting-edge initiatives like this with KPMG and BecomingX,” she said.
Cowan said the plan is to roll out the platform across islands where KPMG is based in the Caribbean region and across the globe.
He urged the Cayman community to keep their eyes out for the platform and “embrace it”.
“For parents, I hope they hear about it through their kids and it can kind of ignite a wildfire across all the schools,” he added.
Gurney said the platform offers a free cinema catalogue on it’s official site for interested individuals to view the interviews they have conducted.
“We’re delighted that every young person’s going to be able to see the great content that we’ve prepared and hopefully really learn what it takes to succeed and go on to do amazing things in their lives,” he added.
DeAnne Blackman, KPMG’s manager for local talent development and corporate citizenship, said the group is committed to supporting one of its sustainable development goals, which relates to quality education, and BecomingX Education in local schools will help set up students for success.
Related Videos
