400 Young People Included in the Club for Digital Education
This year, we continued to see remarkable engagement with HP LIFE courses with the YMCA in the Youth Center, marking the second year these courses have been offered within the program for career development. The results speak volumes about the program’s growing impact: Positive Feedback Participant Insights In an anonymous evaluation, participants shared what they appreciated most about the program: When asked what could be improved, most participants expressed satisfaction with the current setup. Some suggested expanding the program to include more participants, adding music during sessions, or introducing additional topics. Next Steps As we move into 2025, we are excited to continue offering these courses, building on our successes, and reaching even more participants. For the second consecutive year, the HP digital education club has been the most visited initiative at the Youth Center, outshining the center’s other four active clubs in terms of the number of participants. Its continued success underscores its importance in bridging the digital divide and empowering the community through accessible digital education. Looking ahead to 2025, we are committed to enhancing and expanding this initiative even further. By continuing to provide valuable digital education opportunities, we aim to empower more individuals in our community, foster innovation, and help participants develop the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world. We look forward to welcoming new participants and building on the strong foundation established over the past two years. Read what the participants are saying: Testimonials
Participants’ Voices: Testimonials from the YMCA+HP Digital Education Program for 2024
AndreaAs one of the most regular visitors to the Youth Center, who regularly attends various events and workshops, I also learned about the HP LIFE courses. These are digital literacy courses run by Natasha from the YMCA. I learned a lot of new things that I should normally learn at school, but unfortunately, they aren’t part of our education system. After taking a few courses, I decided to recommend them to my classmates because I believe everyone should be educated on basic things. After all, we live in a time where almost everything is digital. I must also mention that every time I attend any HP LIFE course, I gain knowledge, confidence, and make new acquaintances. My favorite category is communications. LukaI am satisfied with these courses because we are living in a modern age where everyone needs to have an understanding of technology, online business, and many other things. I am very grateful to the YMCA for offering the HP courses because they are very useful for young people. I have been taking these courses for a while now, and I can say that I like and use them a lot. I also want to praise Natasha Darkov, who is our educator and is always ready to explain any part of the course that is unclear to us. I am sharing this course with my friends and classmates because it is beneficial, and I hope they will like it because it is very relevant today. In the future, I plan to study all the courses, but I would single out the marketing topic as the most useful. MarkoI am 17 years old and I was introduced to the HP courses at the youth center where I regularly volunteer. I am thrilled I started attending these courses because I learned about different aspects of the IT world. This way of getting some new skills through such courses should be applied in education because when I can get this much knowledge, everyone else should and deserves to get it. The courses can help a lot and I would share them with more of my friends. DavidI’m David, a student in my second year at SABA high school, majoring in business. My school always shows interest in non-formal education and that is why for the second year we partnered with the YMCA for the digital education courses the YMCA offers supported by HP Life. I attend these courses with many of my classmates to enrich my knowledge of digital marketing. I know that the future lies in digital education, so I study all the courses with great dedication. I would recommend all young people to take advantage of this free opportunity and I know that if they come at least once, the YMCA Digital Hub will become one of their favorite places in our city. LinaI am Lina, a second year of studying business at SABA high school and I have also been attending HP courses for the second year, provided by the YMCA in our city. I found out about these courses through our school, which is always willing to suggest and provide us with additional knowledge so that we can improve ourselves more for our future. The topic of digital marketing is my favorite, but of course, I also enjoy the new courses on the topic of Digital Business Skills, which are much related to my current education. In the future, I would like to study business-related studies, and I know that the knowledge gained about digital marketing will be of great importance to me. I recommend it to all my classmates and friends, this is a great opportunity for us and it would be a great shame if you do not take advantage of it. Read more about this program here.
630 young people included in the club for digital education
Digital literacy, a skill that is now as important as reading and writing, is the ability of citizens to use computers effectively in their workplaces and in their daily lives. The ability to use devices for games and entertainment does not define digital literacy among young people. Digital literacy is much more than embracing new technologies, using social media, or creating and tracking photo and video content. It is the ability to use digital technologies to create, select and connect information from multiple sources, in multiple formats, and use them to improve effectiveness in any area – learning, work, etc. On 22.03.2023 we started with the first term for courses and so far we have 110 terms with a total of 630 participants (of which 50% are female and 50% are male), completed about 30 different courses from the categories of marketing, communications, finance and startup /innovations. After 9 months of delivering activities related to YMCA’s digital education courses in collaboration with HP, we would like to share with you some of the findings from the evaluations completed by the participants. We are happy with the feedback we receive from the participants who describe the courses as easy to follow, interesting, interactive, they would recommend them to their friends and almost all of them want to come again on a new topic. In the last several years across our country have been created a dozen of a youth clubs. This has been one of the most attended program! We are very happy with the impact we have created. In addition, are the answers of the participants about the difficulty of the course and their future involvement in it. In addition, we share some of the most frequent comments that were repeatedly shared regarding what they liked about the courses: Read here impressions from some of the participants included in this program
Overview of HP & YMCA digital education program and opportunities 2023
The goal of the collaboration between HP and YMCA is to use technology in a good way, to achieve digital inclusion by providing access to technology and digital education to everyone in an easy and interesting way. The courses are made by experts in their fields from the HP company and conducted by YMCA youth workers. We find these courses useful for adding value to the informatics curriculum in schools as well as for practical use in our everyday lives. The courses are short in duration from 20 to 50 minutes, in five topics with several courses in each of them. They are easy, interactive, and filled with short videos, dialogues, pictures and quizzes. The courses offered are in the following topics: communications, finance, operations, marketing and startups/innovations. Each course contains 5 steps: a short course description, business concept, technology skills, survey and additional resources on the topic. The pace of studying a course is according to the desire of the participant. Once you have completed all 5 steps (100%) the course is successfully completed. For each completed course you receive an electronic certificate in your e-mail with specified information about the specific course, what was learned in it, the date of study and the signature of the Deputy Director of the HP Foundation. Each course is taught individually at the YMCA in the Youth Center with full technical equipment from our side. Alternatively, there is the possibility of conducting the courses in the premises of the educational institutions in Bitola. The participant has no obligation to bring equipment or to have special prior knowledge of a certain topic or conditions for studying a certain number of courses. The courses have open dates where EVERYONE can SIGN UP, and reserved dates are offered for groups/institutions that work with young people. Groups are limited up to 10 participants per course. The courses are: completely free for anyone with a functional email, intermediate knowledge of the English language and a desire to learn and upgrade their knowledge. The courses are held in the premises of the Youth Center – Bitola, on Krushevo Street 5 in the local community of Veljko Vlahovic. Read here to learn more about this project
Digital education with HP LIFE courses in Bitola!
Opportunities for digital education in Bitola As part of a long-term collaboration between YMCA and HP, this April we started holding digital literacy courses for the youth of our city. The courses are made by experts in their fields from the HP company and conducted by YMCA youth workers. We find these courses useful for adding value to the informatics curriculum in schools as well as for practical use in our everyday lives. The courses are short in duration from 20 to 50 minutes, in five topics with several courses in each of them. The courses offered are in the following topics: communications, finance, logistics, marketing and startups/innovations. The courses have open appointments for which ANYONE CAN APPLY, as well as reserved appointments offered for groups/institutions that work with young people. The groups are limited to 10 participants each. The courses are: completely free for anyone with a functional email, intermediate knowledge of the English language and a desire to learn and upgrade their knowledge. The courses are held in the premises of the Youth Center – Bitola. Digital Hubs in the Western Balkans Building on that success from 2022, this year YMCA World and HP are expanding the initiative to reach as many people as possible and further close the digital divide. In that direction, in 2023 the program expanded with the digital hubs of the Western Balkans at the initiative of the YMCA and enabled by HP helping the YMCAs in Kosovo, Albania, Serbia and Macedonia to expand existing or create new hubs for digital education in order to enable young people, including those from marginalized communities, teachers and youth workers to gain greater educational and employment opportunities. The initiative in the Western Balkans aims to reach 25,000 people per year by bridging the digital divide and providing equal access to digital tools and resources. For this purpose, YMCA will work and collaborate with young people, schools, employment centres, businesses, youth workers and teachers to create digital equality in the Western Balkans region. YMCA in Kosovo aims to improve its reputation as a digital provider and engage young people in recognized courses that enhance their CVs. In Serbia, the focus is to make a digital hub available every day and to achieve digital equality. In Macedonia, the goal is to initiate a long-term program for digital education. In Albania, the plan is to provide easy access to the digital hub for primary and secondary schools and other categories of people. Beginning of the successful collaboration of the World YMCA with HP In 2022 the World YMCA and the HP Foundation launched a partnership to accelerate the digital equality of young people and marginalized communities around the world. Seven YMCA associations have integrated HP LIFE courses into their programs to improve digital literacy and encourage young people in their communities to actively participate in an increasingly digitized world. HP LIFE is a program of the HP company that works to achieve the goals of reaching 150 million people by 2030 and expanding the program to 50 countries (the YMCA has a presence in 120 countries). HP LIFE digital skills training courses in 2022 involved more than 1,300 students mainly aged 15 to 26. YMCA World’s Vision 2030 strategy also includes digital equality as it fosters education, employment and entrepreneurship in communities around the world. HP’s continued global collaboration with the YMCA can reach young people in the communities where they live today by giving them access to practical business and IT skills that can help them thrive.
