Unveil the Minds of Future Innovators
by Aisha Hamis
The Open Skies Fellowship is delivering a series of emerging tech workshops to youth in different regions, offering hands-on experience and capacity-building programs that introduce young people particularly females, to the latest trending technologies.
OpenMap Development Tanzania through the Open Skies Fellowship holds technology workshops across the country to inspire youth in technology, provide practical skills, and expose youth to different technologies. The fellowship’s main goal is to develop the next generation of African experts on frontier technologies, with a focus on women as participants and leaders.
In October and November, we held workshops in Dodoma and Mwanza, with 140 youth attending. Attendees came from a variety of institutions, including VETA Dodoma, Nyakato Vocation Training Center (NVTC), SIDO, students from the University of Dodoma, DIT Mwanza, CBE Mwanza, and CBE Dodoma, and other technology aspirants from these two regions.
The workshops were conducted in collaboration with SIDO, SIDO TLED Hub in Mwanza, Youth Tech Solution in Dodoma, DIT Design Studio, and others in the innovation sector. These workshops have allowed the program to explore different youth minds in universities, communities, and vocational training centers. The youth are eager to learn; all they need is exposure and opportunities to realize their potential; Workshops like these are a great place to start.
It served as a forum for networking and the exchange of skills and knowledge, as well as for participants to gain confidence and learn about pitching, which will later allow them to showcase their skills and abilities and potentially obtain various opportunities, including resources to support their ideas.
“We hope that the knowledge that OSF has shared with us will be shared with others, particularly VETA students. There are many talented youths in VETA, and through this workshop, they will be able to share their ideas and showcase their talents, which will help in resolving various social problems. Neema Emmanuel Matemu a student at VETA Dodoma.
At the end of the workshop, all attendees had the opportunity to share and pitch their innovative ideas in groups for a chance to be enrolled as fellows and receive support in moving their ideas into prototypes.
Attendees with great project ideas on how to use technology and innovation to solve community problems will be selected for the 3rd Tanzania Cohort, joining the other 35 fellows already supported by the program in Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More information about the program is found on this website: https://openskiesfellows.org/
