Two training workshops were held for teachers on 2, 3, 9, and 10 October 2015, while students are to participate in 4 workshops of 4 days each during the period 30 October to 5 December 2015.

These training sessions allow teachers and principals to teach a new, innovative course in mobile apps development, as they would acquire new ICT-pedagogy skills. Teachers will also play a leading role in connecting the school to other schools, nationally and globally.

Through offering training workshops and teaching resources to teachers, this programme will have a major sustainable impact since these teachers will become ambassadors in their schools introducing new courses/modules into the curriculum and teaching their students computing skills. In addition, these trainings will be complemented with student-oriented activities including mobile app development workshops and competitions on themes related to sustainability.

Students however will be acquiring high-level 21st century skills and confidence to develop/promote mobile apps to resolve local issues of sustainable development. On a longer run, this programme offers learning opportunities for youth to engage in society and earn livelihoods as mobile app entrepreneurs.

In an era where computing is a key driver for innovation in almost all fields including education, science, business, engineering, environment, and others, advanced digital knowledge and computer proficiency lead to better quality of life. Computing skills are set among the necessary skills of the twenty first century.

Through this project, that is in line with UNESCO YouthMobile initiative, UNESCO and LAU are building on the experience of many worldwide initiatives to introduce young people to programming (learning-to- code) and problem solving (coding-to-learn). This programme also seeks to build on experiences targeting young women who are vastly under-represented in this field.