Capacity Development
Key Insights
Held from 17 to 19 September in Manama, Bahrain under the theme “Developing skills for digital transformation,” the Digital Skills Forum attracted nearly 700 participants from 66 countries to address the top priorities and actions needed to close the pressing global digital skills gap. The event, hosted by Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, concluded with calls for collaboration, coordination and partnerships in developing and delivering digital skills.
The ITU Academy Training Centres programme offered 53 courses in 2024 (during January-November period) and certified nearly 1,500 learners, with 85% coming from developing countries.
The second annual meeting of the ITU Academy Training Centers took place on 16 September in Manama, Bahrain, ahead of the Digital Skills Forum, and provided an opportunity for delegates to identify projects for collaboration, exchange best practices and align on training quality approaches.
A EUR 4 million ‘Capacity Development for Digital Transformation’ project was launched in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) to train policymakers and government officials to strengthen their abilities to support a human-centric digital transformation. Funded through the EU Global Gateway, the project has so far organized 24 courses and trained 750 participants from around the world, with particular focus on developing countries.
The ITU Academy registered 11,000 additional users, bringing the total number of learners to over 56,000. Over 140 courses were delivered on the ITU Academy, with over 6,000 people certified.
The fourth Global Workshop of the Digital Transformation Centers (DTC) took place in Bali, Indonesia. It was organized in cooperation with Cisco and hosted by the ICT Training and Development Centre under the Ministry of Communications and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia – which serves as the DTC in Indonesia – in collaboration with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison.
Bridge the Digital Divide Sierra Leone (BDDSL) joined the DTC community as DTC-Sierra Leone, bringing the total number of centres in the network to 14. In addition, two telecommunications companies, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Airtel Africa, became partners of the DTC Initiative.
The total number of course participants trained by DTCs in the first half of the year was 76,962, of which 57% were female.
Through the “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres” project, BDT and the Government of Norway supported DTCs in Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, and Zambia in conducting citizens’ trainings and/or train-the-trainer programmes, as well as outreach activities and seminars to raise awareness on digital literacy.
The number of DTCs to offer the ‘Introduction to Computer Basics for the Visually Impaired’ (ICBVI) has increased to 4, with DTCs Ghana and Pakistan. A total of 79 trainers (including 20 visually impaired) were trained in the two countries, and a total of 594 visually impaired citizens (45.3% females) were additionally trained in Ghana.
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