This course discusses building inclusive and digitally accessible environments and communities, underlining the importance of digital inclusivity and accessibility for all people, empowered through ICTs regardless of gender, age, ability, or context.

This self-paced training course offers an introductory exploration of strategic foresight tailored to individuals engaged in fostering digital innovation for sustainable development. With a focus on bridging the digital divide and addressing global challenges, the course emphasizes the crucial role of strategic foresight in shaping equitable futures. Through seven modules, participants delve into essential concepts, tools, and terminology while honing practical skills in futures thinking. The course equips learners with the competencies to integrate strategic foresight into their specific domains, fostering strategic thinking and innovation in digital development initiatives. By recognizing the value of strategic foresight processes, participants gain insights to drive meaningful change in their projects, policies, and strategies, ultimately contributing to the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This instructor-led training course, Strategic Foresight 201, is all about helping acceleration centres understand how to plan for the future in a digital world. It focuses on trends in research readiness and is based on the Playbook for Strategic Foresight by the ITU/BDT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development. Equipped with hypothetical case studies, this course is designed to speed up the change to digital technology, encourage new ideas, and support national growth goals.

During this 8-hour deep dive, you will be introduced to the key techniques, services, and trends that will help you understand foundation models from the ground up. This means breaking down theory, mathematics, and abstract concepts combined with hands-on exercises to gain functional intuition for practical application. Throughout the course, we focus on a wide spectrum of progressively complex generative AI techniques, giving you a strong base to understand, design, and apply your own models for the best performance. We’ll start with recapping foundation models, understanding where they come from, how they work, how they relate to generative AI, and what you can to do customize them. You’ll then learn about picking the right foundation model to suit your use case.