For years now, the Ministry of Culture and Youth in collaboration with organizations and cultural professional, annually launched the Summer Camp program while students were out of school. The program is curated with the aim of sharpening skills, developing capabilities, opening horizons for youth in the cultural and creative industries sector, in addition to instilling a culture of knowledge transfer from experts. The extensive program is held at cultural centers across the country offering over 70 creative workshops presented by experts from leading local and international organizations. Workshops cover many areas, such as visual arts, design, architecture, entrepreneurship, science and technology, media, meditation and life.
The Summer Camps have served as an opportunity for youth from across the country to discover and develop their creative skills as well as share their creativity with each other. 1,500 students participated in the summer camp in 2019. Additional results from the 2020 Summer Camp (which was held digitally due to COVID 19) are as follows:
* Diverse age groups, nationalities, and countries participated
* The number of enrollments for the first week was 20,000 participants
* More than 30,000 YouTube views
* 16 dialogue sessions, including five sessions for the Korean dialogue
* 8 workshops (4 for youth and 4 for children)
* 17 cultural shows
* 71 guests
* 55 cultural hours over a month
The 2020 version of Summer Camp presented an opportunity to implement a virtual version of the program which allowed for wider public reach and engagement in the programs. This has provided many lessons for future planning of the program. Below are additional outcomes of the Summer Camp 2020:
* The importance of balancing between the economic and creative aspects of culture.
* Creating many programs and options to attractively educate content makers in the UAE, to ensure their effective participation globally.
* Translating Emirati Poetry.
* Supporting the podcast industry in the UAE.