Build Skills
Build Skills is the Foundation’s professional capacity programme. It supports the people who need to engage with technology policy in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia — civil society organisations, journalists, academic researchers, government practitioners, and private-sector stakeholders — so that the conversations about how digital systems are governed include the actors most affected by their deployment. The work sits within the Foundation’s Capacity theory-of-change function described on the Mission page.
The gap that responsible technology faces in Central Asia is not primarily a knowledge gap. It is a participation gap. Closing it requires that practitioners across civil society, media, government, and academia have the vocabulary, the evidence base, and the institutional standing to engage international frameworks on local terms.
Curricula and Training
The Foundation develops original training curricula on internet governance, AI policy, responsible AI, and the international frameworks (UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, OECD AI Principles, GIRAI methodology) that practitioners need to navigate. Materials are produced in Russian to ensure accessibility for Central Asian civil society audiences.
- Internet Governance and AI Policy training, July 2024 — two-day Bishkek programme delivered in partnership with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). Covered the multi-stakeholder governance model, AI policy concepts, and the rights frameworks AI deployments intersect with. Read the notes →
- Responsible AI Questionnaire (Вопросник по Ответственный ИИ) — Russian-language assessment instrument used by civil society practitioners to map domestic AI governance gaps against international frameworks.
- Ready4Trade Training Cohort, 2021–2023 — 75 trainers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan trained on cross-border marketplaces, payment solutions, and ecommerce export, in partnership with the ITC Intracen Ready4Trade Programme.
- Pitch and venture-capital education — recurring lectures and workshops since 2015, covering term sheets, valuation, and storytelling for investors. Earliest documented session →
Curricula Development for the Public System
Beyond convening-style training, the Foundation has contributed to formal national education curricula. Through advisory roles to the Ministry of Education and the Office of the Prime Minister (2014–2018), Foundation leadership helped develop programmes and manuals for preschool and higher education in IT and digitalisation, and contributed to the introduction of Creative Commons standards and digital textbooks in the Kyrgyz school system.
The Foundation drafted the National Digital Skills and Competencies Strategy of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNDP in 2020 — the country’s framework instrument for digital skills development across the public, private, and civil society sectors. The 2018 ICT talent pipeline research (landing, education supply, enterprise demand) provided the evidence base on which subsequent skills-strategy work was built.
Training Programmes for Specific Sectors
Where a sector requires its own curriculum, the Foundation has built it. The Creative Spark Big Idea Challenge programme (2018–2019, in partnership with the British Council, AUCA, and Enactus Kyrgyzstan) trained over 500 participants across ten finalist teams, with national champion Aizada Tynybekova advancing to the London final. Read the case study → The USAID Economic Cooperation Programme Business Accelerator (2019, with ACDI/VOCA) supported eleven IT teams across three sessions with the VIRAL methodology. Read the case study →
Build Skills sits alongside the Foundation’s other operational programme areas: Promote Smart Policies, Research, Unite Community, and Raise Awareness. The full institutional timeline records each training programme and partnership delivered since 2015.