Project Details


WSIS Prizes Contest 2023 Nominee

Digital Upskilling Program for Filipinos


Free Online Courses for Filipinos in the New Normal

Description

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed all people to heavily rely on information and communications technology for access to vital services on health, entertainment, commerce, and even education. Most activities have shifted from the traditional face-to-face transactions to ICT-enabled processes. People started to work from home, students and teachers adopted remote education, and businesses joined e-marketplaces.
This drastic disruption thrusting the people to utilize ICT has also brought to light the gap in digital literacy skills of Filipinos. Philippine Digital Economy 2020 Report by World Bank emphasized that these skills are imperative for individuals to “gain aptitude to access online services and use digital content to explore opportunities for personal and professional development”. The study revealed a wide gap in digital literacy caused by factors such as age, educational attainment, and household income. For this reason, we have conducted free ICT skills training for Filipinos.
From 2020-2022, this Digital Upskilling Program has accomplished:
- 116 courses conducted on Digital Governance, Digital Education, Digital Marketing, and CyberSecurity.
- 225,607 participants gained basic to advance ICT skills.
- 1,989 teachers earned Continuing Professional Development units required for license renewal.
- 368 equipped to land online jobs through the Digital Jobs intensive course.
- Learning Management System Portal and Mobile App launched with 21,100 registered users and 57,521 course certificates generated as of November 2022.

Project website

https://www.facebook.com/DICT.RO9BASULTA/


Action lines related to this project
  • AL C3. Access to information and knowledge
  • AL C4. Capacity building 2023
Sustainable development goals related to this project
  • Goal 4: Quality education
  • Goal 5: Gender equality
  • Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals

Global digital compact (GDC) objectives related to this project None

Coverage
  • Philippines

Status

Completed

Start date

2020

End date

2022


Target beneficiary group(s)
  • Youth
  • Older persons
  • Women
  • People with disabilities
  • The unemployed
  • Educators

Replicability

While we only cover Zamboanga Peninsula Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi regions, our program has trained over 225,000 participants located across the country in just a span of 2 years. With the country’s 17 regions, other ICT agencies can replicate this digital literacy training program to equip more Filipinos with ability to utilize ICTs and explore a plethora of opportunities found in the digital realm.
These agencies can follow through our model of hosting the training online, open the registration to all interested participants, and release e-Certificates as incentive for their participation. The training materials/video lectures are also made available as open access materials which can provide content or serve as template for other training programs.


Sustainability

The training sessions are being done online via Zoom Communications Inc and streamed simultaneously on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DICT.RO9BASULTA/). The training materials are available and accessible anytime on said Facebook Page for anyone to re-watch, watch later, or download.
For high-demand courses such as CyberSecurity and Digital Education, the courses are later uploaded in DICT’s locally developed learning management system (https://dictr9-lms.online/) with a feature that allows self-generation of certificates once session and evaluation are done. The LMS serves as an on-demand portal available for anyone to access anywhere, anytime. A mobile app version was also recently released to make the learning sessions more accessible to the public.
This model encourages continuing education and lifelong learning which is critical to the growth and development of target beneficiaries such as educators. Since the course materials are produced as Open Educational Resources through the DICT’s repository, continuous use can be assured.


WSIS values promotion

The free training program equipped the participants on topics such as but not limited to open distance education, education technology, cybersafety, digital parenting, online marketing strategies, graphics design, video editing, hardware servicing, productivity tools, and programming essentials. These skills have enabled them to participate and benefit in the Information Society and digital economy. 70% of the training participants are also women, hence advancing the implementation of gender-inclusive programs that enable women to advance in the ICT industry. Persons with disability and senior citizens have also actively joined the online training courses in our pursuit of strengthening the vulnerable sector. As we witness new technologies sprout, traditional work is slowly becoming obsolete. Hence, this training has enhanced the current workforce with digital know-how to be able to ride the waves of digital transformation.


Entity name

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

Entity country—type

Philippines Government

Entity website

https://www.dict.gov.ph