Hackathon
Context and Execution of Event on Thursday 15 June 2023
Objective - Rationale for the Hackathon on Thur, 15 June 2023
Learners In Each Service Provider’s Class Were Grouped & Commenced Developing Solutions The 30 candidates were grouped into 11 groups, of 2 - 3 learners per group. This resulted in each Service Provider to have 5 or 6 groups to mentor for the Hackathon. The community solution topics were selected following a process derived at as below: the learners worked on a varied range of community challenges from a global, national and local communities perspective during the class time whilst completing their curriculum;
They developed new knowledge and understandings from a ‘critical thinking’ perspective included into the design thinking model, which created a higher level of thinking in order to potentially solve community problems; Challenges that resonated with them personally; Challenges that affected the industry / sector that they were operating in as entrepreneurs; The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, most of which resonated as same or similar sociol-economic ills and challenges affecting their communities which, if addressed, could alleviate some of the debilitating challenges preventing prosperity and if their solutions are marketed innovatively it could attract international funders.
Collaboratively the learners, Service Providers and I-Can Centre identified, shortlisted and selected the 6 (six) local challenges requiring solutions and the unique support for this is that the topics were common to South Africa, to their communities and were also global challenges especially eg crime, the green economy and so forth. The common link uniting all solution topics was that their pitch deck presentation had to follow the Design Thinking methodology.
The 6 solution topics selected for the pitch-deck presentations at the Hackathon are below in no particular order
