Oe-cusse, Timor-Leste (May 5, 2021)

 From May 5-7^th, 2021, the Dominican Café Playground in Pante-Macassar will be the site of an ICT bootcamp and exhibition for hundreds of primary, secondary, pre-secondary and technical vocational school students in Oe-Cusse. This event is organised by the UNDP as part of its Leveraging ICT to Improve Education and Skills in Timor-Leste Project, in partnership with The Oe-cusse Regional Administration (RAEOA-ZEESM TL), UNICEF and the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, which is providing funding. The project’s overall aim is to provide young people in Oe-cusse with the requisite ICT skills and knowledge, to better to address the socio-economic challenges and opportunities  in their communities.

Following the opening ceremony on Day 1, there will be a competition among participating schools in various ICT categories. These include basic ICT skills, website design, robotics technology, and digital thinking and innovations using IoT and Arduino devices. On the second day participants will benefit from intense, face to face and online courses and workshops conducted by international experts. This training will combine theoretical and practical work and focus on entrepreneurship and problem solving.

Day 3 will see the opening of the exhibition which will feature a robotic and innovation showcase. It will also act as a medium for exchanging ICT knowledge and information among the students, teachers, and  the local community, as well as promoting the use of technology. Following addresses and speeches by the leaders of the various partners involved in the project, there will be a prize giving ceremony for the winners of the competition.

This event builds on previous trainings and activities in 2019 and 2020, where Oe-cusse students improved their computer literacy skills and worked on developing innovative ICT solutions to solve social problems.  The goal of this bootcamp and exhibition is to further educate students on how they can become potential social entrepreneurs by problem solving and developing real-life solutions that have workable market potential. For more information on the ICT Bootcamp and Exhibition visit http://www.ict-innovationbootcamp.com/