Aibar Usenov, the senior manager of the office, conducted the Startup School course for the participants, was involved in project tracking, and also prepared them for presentation at Demo Day. Other partners of the incubator - KBTU and IBC Group taught participants an introduction to Python, an introduction to machine learning, business thinking and the basics of entrepreneurship.

The organizers recall: initially, 100 applications were received for participation in the incubator. However, only seven teams were able to reach the final. Each idea was special and not like the others.

Professional Guidance Consultant RFMS Aidar Aidraliev:

- The idea to hold a school incubator came after watching the Korean drama 'Startup'. In addition to an interesting storyline, I discovered many new concepts from the world of startups. By virtue of my work, being in constant contact with schoolchildren, I noticed that we have a lot of talented guys who are successfully engaged in project activities: they write programs based on artificial intelligence, win Hackathons, Technovation. This is how the idea to create the Qadam school incubator came about.

And here are the reviews of the Qadam participants themselves:

Mansur Nurmukhambetov, NZT team, Haileybury Almaty school:

• Our Soft Skill AI project won first place at the Qadam Hub incubator. This is a chatbot designed to help HR professionals in the selection of job candidates. That is, a potential employee answers questions in a telegram bot that simulates an interview. The idea of ​​creating such a bot came at the Jas Talents hackathon in May 2021. There were several HR specialists among the jury, from whom I learned about the need for such a bot. I think that the main skill that the school incubator gave us is that we have learned to correctly identify our target audience and potential customers.\

Daria Akhmedieva, ADZ team, RFMS (3rd place):

• At the incubator, we presented the BalaQor project - a safety system for children. It is a mobile application and a silicone bracelet with a QR code for a child. How it works? The name of the parents, the time of arrival and departure from the kindergarten are loaded into the system. Upon arrival and departure, an adult scans a QR code, and the child’s status changes to “came to kindergarten” or “taken home”, respectively. The notification instantly comes to the second parent. Thus, a stranger will not be able to pick up a child from the kindergarten. To date, 6 kindergartens have become interested in our application.

Qadam Hub finalists receive individual consultations to apply for the Astana Hub incubation program, which starts this summer. According to Aibar Usenov, Astana Hub plans to expand the geography of the Startup School throughout the country.