After 11 weeks of training on Saturdays, 9 students have successfully graduated from the first Sisters of Code Ambassadors program. This was a new training course for the future Sisters of Code mentors, with a goal to provide a holistic educational program with 8 modules, focused both on soft skills and digital skills development:
Pedagogy principles and ethics
Teacher as a leader
Coaching in education
Creative computing curriculum
Project management
Presentation skills
Attitudes and motivations
Professional orientation in IT
Each module was presented by experts in the field, who shared their knowledge and skills with the trainees. All the sessions were delivered online to meet health and safety requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some technical challenges with Internet connectivity, 100% of the participants acknowledged their satisfaction with the program and would recommend others to join it in the future.
As the result, 9 students out of 13 enrolled, have successfully completed the program. The main obstacles of learning for the 4 students, who could not finish it, were weak Interner connection and challenges to combine with studies with their universities or workload.
Out of 9 students, we have selected 5 students to become Sisters of Code mentors and receive project budgets and support in starting their own clubs in their communities. Among the selected Ambassadors, 2 trainers would start clubs in the provinces, such as Kampong Tham and Stung Treng. We expect that thanks to the Ambassadors program at least 50 Cambodian girls will be able to learn creative computing together with Sisters of Code.
The first Sisters of Code Ambassadors program has shown that such an approach in the training of trainers is efficient, but can be improved by focusing more on computer science curriculum and leadership skills development.