digitalswitzerland is a Switzerland-wide, cross-sector initiative that aims to strengthen and consolidate Switzerland as a leading international location for digital innovation. Under the umbrella organization digitalswitzerland, over 240 association members and non-political foundation partners work together to realize this goal.
In its 2022 edition, held at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, Thomas talked about The Dariu Foundation and its work, in front of international business leaders, academics and digital thought leaders, who met to exchange ideas on the digital future. Watch his full speech here.
The Dariu Foundation is launching its new project in Malaysia, in cooperation with The Rolf Schnyder Foundation, the Sarawak Ministry of Women and the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak. The Memorandum of Understanding has been signed on Friday, August 28, 2022 and aims at providing digital literacy classes.
Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg witnessed the MoU singing ceremony, where the Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development pointed out, that it is committed to ensure that all children in Sarawak are equipped with digital literacy so that they are not left behind in the digitalisation era, said its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said, this programme aims to provide computer literacy and coding training and classes for teachers and children to develop vital computational thinking and reasoning skills that are essential for a technology reliant future. She added that this theme is chosen to emphasise the importance of having the relevant skills among Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers to be able to adapt and cope with the ever changing educational and socio-economic environments.
A group of five students from Cong Nghiep High School in Hoa Binh will be attending the 11th World Invention Creativity Olympics (WICO) in Seoul from August 4-6, 2022, where they are invited to exhibit their project at the event.
The group created a project – funded by The Dariu Foundation via Code Club – which they call “HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM FOR THE ELDERLY”.
It is more and more common that elderly people are left alone at home, without their children taking care of them as they live far away. One of the common problems that occur, is that they forget to take their medicine. Therefore, a small team of Code Club members developed a project to assist with the care of the elderly.
The system has two functions: measure such indicators as room temperature, humidity, light level etc. These indicators will be online, so that family members can see and control them remotely. The system also includes a medication box that triggers a signal at set times to remind people to take their medications. If they do not take them, the system sends notifications to family members so they can intervene.
On March 15, The Dariu Foundation and Intel Products Vietnam organized the ceremony for the handover of 150 laptops to 5 schools in Tien Giang and Hau Giang provinces. These laptops are donated by Intel Products Vietnam on the occasion of its 15th anniversary of Intel in Vietnam. Over the past years, TDF has provided around 1,500 laptops to nearly 50 schools in Tien Giang and Hau Giang provinces, creating access for over 200,000 students in these provinces to computer and code literacy education.
“We highly appreciate the Digital Literacy Initiative of The Dariu Foundation, which enabled hundreds of thousands of children, especially in the rural and mountainous areas, to having access to digital literacy education over the past years. We are delighted by the fact that the program also focus on girls in STEM. What TDF is doing is exactly what Intel is intended to do in its RISE 2030 strategy – empowering young people through access to technology in Vietnam,” said Mr. Giang Hoang, Government Affairs Manager of Intel Products Vietnam.
Intel has continuously supported and donated to The Dariu Foundation since 2012 in several projects, mostly in the Digital Literacy Initiative.
Vietnam’s IT industry is ranked in the world’s top fastest growing countries, thus demand for IT human resource is increasing strongly. In addition, there is a huge lack of IT human resources in Singapore, Japan, etc., so their recruitment wave turned to Vietnamese market.
This is why The Dariu Foundation cooperates with Quang Trung IT Workforce Solution Center (ISC)* in Ho Chi Minh City in training AI Developers. We have recruited 27 students for a 10-week training between November 21 and January 22. The scholars were taught 5 days a week for 10 weeks; after their graduation, all 27 could be placed in an appropriate job!
Based on this success, we will continue the program and enroll 50 students for the training in 2022.
*IT Workforce Solution Center”, also known as ISC QUANG TRUNG is established by 4 trusted corporations: Quang Trung Software City (QTSC), Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association (HCA), VNITO Alliance and SaigonTech with the mission to provide the most effective and practical solutions, in terms of quality IT human resources training. With the demand-driven and constantly updated training content, ISC-QUANG TRUNG aims to help students improve their skills and experience to meet market requirements. The training agenda is also designed to meet the expectation of IT companies, resolve short-term and long-term human resource shortage issues of VNITO members and become an effective bridge between the human resource training units and the employers.
The Dariu Foundation has been supporting The Choki Traditional Art School in Bhutan since 2019, committing to the education and training of children and young people in this part of the world, supporting a traditional art school that offers motivated young people from modest backgrounds free training in Bhutanese craftsmanship.
Our latest project was the construction of a badly needed new classroom, which has been completed recently and the students could move in. We could as well provide support with IT equipment, which has been a great benefit to the school.
The Dariu Foundation, in collaboration with Lam Dong Department of Education and Training (DOET), organized a two-day training workshop for Artificial Intelligence (AI) where 150 local IT-teachers attended.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around us, from self-driving cars, digital assistants, ride-share apps, banking apps, social media and much more. It is said that AI will change 100% of jobs over the next 10 years, therefore, it is of utmost importance for the young generation to know what artificial intelligence (AI) is, how it works, how to use it in their everyday lives, and how it could potentially be used in the future.
TDF’s curriculum and TOT training course, designed by a group of lecturers from HCM Bach Khoa University, in partnership with TDF, provides fundamental understanding which every teacher needs in order to know how to embed AI into their everyday teaching practice, preparing their students to be successful in the modern workforce, regardless of their career paths.
We are very happy to announce a new partnership with Swiss-based Fontana Foundation. The goal of the cooperation is to provide vocational training to 450 young adults in Vietnam.
Unemployment in Vietnam, especially among youths, is a big problem and the Covid-19 pandemic made it even worse. While the country is currently faced with record-high unemployment it, at the same time, lacks skilled workers, particularly in the digital sector. E-commerce is growing 35%, a growth never seen before in Vietnam.
This is where this cooperation sets in: while The Dariu Foundation’s core competencies lie in digital skills and creating opportunitiesfor the youth, the Fontana Foundation has several years of experience in financing and supporting vocational training programs in various Asian countries.
Together we will provide IT-based vocational training (programming and graphic design) and e-commerce training to 450 youths. Benefitting from this program will be rural, disadvantaged young adults, 50% of them young women.
It is our goal that 85% of the participants will either start their own business (e-commerce) or will have a guaranteed job after graduating from the program.
We look forward to working together with Fontana Foundation on this exciting new project
