Kidzania Kuala Lumpur (or Kidzania KL) is a memorable, edutainment centre designed to show and encourage kids to ‘work’ in professional jobs. Teaching them about different career choices, it looks like an indoor city with miniature-sized replicas of office buildings and cars: once you breeze through the AirAsia airport-style entrance, children can take turns performing over 90 different types of grown-up jobs including pretending to be a surgeon, judge, mechanic and hairdresser. An indoor theme park that first started out in Mexico, today there are several Kidzania Kuala Lumpur experiences around the world and this is Malaysia’s first outlet: it is located in Petaling Jaya, about 25 minutes from the KL city centre.
There are more than 40 ‘stops’ you can make with your offspring – it all depends on which jobs catch their fancy. We stopped at the first ‘office’ – the News Straits Times Press building: here, kiddies are given the task of roaming Kidzania to find news to write about and publish, deliver copies of the paper or collect them for recycling from around the city. It is a pretty fun experience for children as they get to sit down for a news brain-storming session and attend a boardroom meeting. Next up, we dropped in at the Chika’s Locker Fashion Boutique – a sure-fire hit with little girls: they get to play dress up, learn how to catwalk and model for a fashion parade.
We also loved the office, where kids undergo physical ‘tests’ to become a certified Kidzania Secret Agent, or have your kid don a pilot’s uniform at the AirAsia flight simulator and ‘fly’ a plane. But by far the most thrilling job is when they get to become honorary fire fighters, ride a fire truck and extinguish a hotel fire. A not-to-be-missed moment comes when kids pretending to be policemen engage in crowd control! Other highlights include an Actor’s Academy, Magic Studio, Surgery Room, C.S.I. Lab, Dentist’s Office and Courthouse. Each job a child performs at the two-storey complex earns them Kidzania currency called KidZos. At the end of the day they can redeem merchandise like colour pencils and stationery from the centre’s gift store, or even at miniaturized, fast food or sushi places inside Kidzania. It’s a great way to teach children the value of money.
Only adults with a kid are allowed entrance into the 80,000sqft Kidzania, and only children can enter ‘office’ buildings – you can watch your child through office windows. An exception to this rule is the Broadcasting Zone, where you get to watch them ‘deliver’ today’s headlines, man the prompter and more. The best part is that you shouldn’t worry about your child’s safety as on-site Zupervisors are thoroughly professional and handle kids extremely well. Plus to help you keep track of your child at this busy and popular one-stop learning centre, they have to wear an electronic tracking bracelet that prevents them from leaving Kidzania without their parents.
