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BASSETERRE, St Kitts (SKNIS) -- Sharing industry skills was the primary focus of a mobile app development workshop held last week in St Kitts, but the initiative also served to spark a sense of creativity, confidence and leadership within participants.

The impact on participants was highlighted by human resource professionals Monica Musaib-Ali and Franka Redwood, who sat quietly in the back and observed the June 24-27 workshop. While being interviewed after the event, they noted the presentations of individuals and the dynamics during group work.

“One young man said one of the things that he was taking away from the workshop was being able to set a quick pace for himself and being able to set goals,” Musaib Ali stated, adding that the creation of content, design and development teams during the practical sessions highlighted the importance of teamwork and the value of contributions from various quarters.

Redwood agreed and referred to comments by another young participant.

“When asked to sum up the conference succinctly, he said ‘future oriented.’ I think he represented the views of many of them (participants) who began to see a possible future for themselves,” she said. “As Monica said, I think that they also understood very clearly that no one person has a corner on this thing and that they need to work in teams. That’s an excellent lesson to learn for life. You are not a lone ranger, you are not an island unto yourself and many of them began to see that. So there was a lot of incidental learning that took place and I think they’ve left here with a totally different mindset and a totally different view of themselves.”

During the workshop, participants were challenged to find issues in society that could be addressed via mobile applications. Some 50 varying ideas were offered including applications for ferry schedules, identifying accessible places for the differently-abled, locating places of interest, and reporting pothole locations. The group settled on and produced three apps that highlight the location of fine local cuisine establishments, when to plant and how to care for featured crops, and reporting crime anonymously.

The workshop was organized by the government of St Kitts and Nevis in collaboration with the BrightPath Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago. Eighty persons of various ages attended the four day event. This ranged from high school students to middle age professionals. The Mobile App Development Workshop was sponsored by Digicel and SKNVibes.

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