Aware that digital technology is now a real lever for development and that the current generation should use it to train, educate and build themselves, PLACE for Africa in collaboration with Meet and Code has initiated a series of online workshops to help young people to be better equipped on digital technology. Thus, from September 12 to October 29, five (05) workshops were organised on various themes related to the digital domain. The main objective of all these sessions was to bring young people to understand the impact of digital technology on their lives in order to acquire the skills to make rational use of it and give life to innovative ideas useful to their community.
In this article, we will take you through the details of each Meet and Code session and a summary of the lessons shared with 325 young people from several African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Namibia and Gambia) and Europe (Germany), 27% of whom were women and 73% men.
The learning workshops started on 12 September 2021 with Workshop 1 entitled Solidarity Workshops and took place over two panels.
photo of the participants
The first panel addressed the theme of the digital world in the air of Covid 19: How to increase solidarity between young people? The second panel focused on self-determined positions against racist insults on online platforms. These exchange sessions allowed about 50 young people to experience the networking possibilities that the digital world offers them, especially in times of health crisis.
In addition, the workshop helped young people to improve their personal branding on social media and to take a positive and self-determined stance against racist insults on online platforms.
Furthermore, the 2nd workshop aimed to give the young participants the tools to organise an online event from conception to implementation and evaluation.
The barrier measures imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic have forced several institutions and organisations to readapt their working systems. Digital teleworking is the solution found by many of these companies to save their activities. Unfortunately, in the face of this need for digital skills, many of these young people have no notion of teleworking and the tools and techniques needed to organise and run online events. To overcome this and allow young people to take full advantage of this virtual framework that digital technology offers today, this 2nd workshop entitled “How to become a young expert in hosting virtual events” was held on Saturday 18 September via zoom and saw the effective participation of 71 young people from various African countries, very committed and very motivated to strengthen their knowledge of digital technology.
photo of the participants
This workshop was held in two sequences. A first sequence on the “Techniques of animation of an online workshop, better understanding the digital” and a second one which consisted of a “Practical workshop on the animation of online meetings“.
These interactive exchanges allowed about 50 young people to have a clearer idea of what virtual meetings, webinars, videoconferencing and teleworking are. The practical session allowed the young people to understand the advantages of online meetings, the various uses of online meetings, the rules for facilitating an online meeting, the tools for a successful online meeting and the three stages of a meeting.
It was also an opportunity for these young people to understand that the digital world today offers several entrepreneurial opportunities, especially in these times of health crisis related to COVID19.
Furthermore, as digital technology can provide new solutions for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the 3rd Meet and Code session focused on “How to contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with digital technology”.