2013 saw tremendous growth in the scope of GKI’s training. We’ve developed new curricula and trained across several geographies, empowering a growing cohort of worldwide collaborative innovation experts. Most recently, we’ve been training in Malaysia and Rwanda. In November, GKI-ers Sara Farley, Courtney O’Brien, and Andrew Bergmanson gave a series of trainings at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Over the course of three days, GKI trained over 20 researchers and 60 students working and studying in fields like mechanical engineering, chemistry, architecture, and human resources. Using a “Training of Trainers” format, researchers were not only instructed in the use of a number of Collaborative Innovation tools, such as Challenge Mapping, but were further empowered to use these tools in their own work, and in their classrooms, to help solve development challenges. In separate sessions, UTM students were introduced to a similar suite of methods and tools. Both students and researchers were able to quickly make use of the skills and techniques they learned during the training at the Community Kickoff Meeting for the UTM-GKI Water Challenge. […]
Tag: training-of-trainers
Training-of-Trainers on Innovation in Tanzania: Refreshing and Revisiting
Back in August, we teamed up with UNESCO and the Nelson Mandela Africa Institute of Science and Technology to conduct a Training-of-Trainers program on innovation management skills in Tanzania. During our first visit we trained trainers on the fundamentals of the skills needed for collaborative innovation and the training techniques needed to impart those skills on more innovators. We see this as a long-term relationship that we hope will yield chain reactions of innovation—read more about the initial training here. This January we had the chance to return to Tanzania to see how well the trainers were doing. First, we conducted a quick refresher course for the trainers and then we observed them as they took charge. Four focal trainers delivered courses on how entrepreneurs could deliver value more efficiently and effectively within the Tanzanian innovation system. Approximately 20 Tanzanian entrepreneurs hailing from Arusha, Moshi, and many other Tanzanian communities gained important practical skills despite their (very) diverse backgrounds (the agriculture, mining, dairy, manufacturing, and tourism sectors were all represented). This was a thrilling, inspiring experience for the GKI team, the trainers, and the entrepreneurs alike. – Contributor: Peter Glover […]