 digital literacy and data skills training graduation digital literacy and data skills training graduation andydindial thu 7292021 1511  university of guyanacaribbean school of data digital literacy and data skills training programme sees resounding 65 graduates  the university of guyana in collaboration with the caribbean school of data csod on wednesday 21 july 2021 hosted a simple graduation ceremony for the first cohort of 65 young people from 9 regions in guyana who participated in a 12week programme in digital literacy and data skills training programme the programme run by staff and former students of ug s department of computer sciences sought to equip the 65 young guyanese with the requisite skills in computer data management and digital efficiency to enable guyana to compete in the growing digital marketplace during the ceremony which was held virtually the university of guyana s vicechancellor xi prof paloma mohamed martin pointed out that this is the first cohort to graduate from this programme and it is historic since it is done completely online and thus allowed for greater participation from the regions than originally envisaged when it was designed in 2019 the vicechancellor took the opportunity to congratulate the graduates for staying the course and successfully completing the programme you are special and you are helping us to understand how things can be done even if we cannot at any point in the future work together on a consistent facetoface platform so the question of mobility adaptability innovation is very much on our minds and we re happy to see you graduate despite the odds prof mohamed martin said the vicechancellor added i have heard testimonials with words such as knowledgeable adaptable i have learned to work as a team with new skills and things that could improve my performance on the job this therefore tells me that you are very much inclined to understanding the grounding of this platform that will allow you to go on to higher and better things caribbean school of data representative dr m mcnaughton in his remarks noted the programme was the first in the caribbean that was given the opportunity to test this delivery model dr mcnaughton said i think your team guyana is doing an incredible job the results are clear generally very high performance and based on what was presented the team had a great time working together he highlighted that the graduates should see themselves as part of an essential process of development that is critical to ensuring our citizens are digitally efficient especially young people and by extension our societies would be able to compete in what is becoming an emerging global digital economy the university of guyana department of computer sciences head mr max baird admonished the graduates to take the graduation as an example of how anything can be possible when you truly put your minds to it to continue forward with confidence that you can achieve your goals and that you re equipped with the tools to tackle the challenges of the future top graduating student ms danielle mittelholzer in her testimonial said it has been such an honour and privilege to be a part of this wonderful course where i learned new digital and data skills that have really changed my professional work i really enjoyed our meetings where we were engaged in exciting and fun games and activities along with informative discussions my journey would not have been completed without the support motivation and guidance of the facilitators as well as my teammates i hope all of us here graduating can take this personal accomplishment as an example of how anything is truly possible when we put our minds to it second place graduate mr shane sahadeo reflected on his experience saying it hasn t been an easy route considering how much work i had with my jobs but i m really glad i did it anyway it came at a time that i really needed it because i deal with very large amounts of student data so i learned about google sheets and cleaning data during the programme which really has boosted my efficiency and effectiveness over time another graduate ms dalia araujo related i am very thankful that i was chosen to be a part of this tremendous programme and i am also grateful for having another year of learning my experience when completing this programme was a bit challenging but with the help of my two facilitators i was able to complete all my tasks and i will be sure to practice all i have learned in my future endeavours the top ten graduates were danielle mittelholzer shane sahadeo leon ross reon payne daniel eastman curtisha kellman shelon benjamin safoora khan naomi singh and shion gullen the ceremony was cochaired by faculty of natural sciences lecturers ms penelope defreitas and ms juanelle marks who designed and ran the programme one of the facilitators of the course ms penelope defreitas during her remarks said i have had the esteemed pleasure of working with the first csodguyana cohort serving in the capacity as lead coordinator and one of the facilitators operating in the online space has been an interesting and learning experience throughout the training programme my team was challenged to be creative inspiring and on the ball every step of the way apart from utilizing the core learning materials that were provided by csod we also introduced educational games and teambased activities to further stimulate interest and build the soft skills of the participants running the first cohort was a success since we encountered few dropouts as well as a high pass rate in the programme to view the full video of the graduating ceremony kindly see here  https bitly csodgrad access passcode csod2021 the programme was sponsored by the caribbean school of data and philanthropy alumni civic engagement pace in the office of the vicechancellor some of the graduates  ug in brief the university of guyana is the 58 th year state university it offers 141 programmes in over 60 disciplines online and facetoface in eight campuses across guyana with a student population of now 10000 ug has provided education learning and research for over 50000 alumni the mission of the university is to discover generate disseminate and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community the nation and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical inquiry ug s forwardthinking blueprint 2040 is currently setting the course for the university s future design and cutting edge institutional response to the changing needs of guyana  contact  ms krest cummings public relations officer department of events conferences and communications decc 5926235104 digital literacy and data skills training graduation  