2304 Views
0 Likes

ASEAN Foundation and SAP Announce National Champions, Empowering Youth for Digital Future and Economy

Marks fifth anniversary, ASEAN Data Science Explorers has delivered digital literacy impact to more than 25,000 youth and educators since 2017

The ASEAN Foundation and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) are pleased to announce the ten winning teams from the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE) 2021 National Finals.

The winners were judged based on their ability to design the best all-rounded concept that tackles ASEAN socio-economic issues, driven by data insights. The judging criteria look at the creativity, feasibility, innovation, and the team’s ability to demonstrate the solution’s implementation.

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, ASEAN DSE continues to equip youth from across the region with essential digital skills by organising its key activities, such as enablement sessions and data analytics competition, virtually. Running for the fifth year, ASEAN DSE has a renewed focus on sustainable development goals (SDGs) that target climate and sustainability. In addition, the programme also collaborated with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in ten ASEAN countries to deliver in-person enablement sessions to youth with limited access to technology and youth with disabilities. The collaboration with NGOs made it possible for the programme to deliver SAP Analytics Cloud training to 11,782 students and lecturers in 2021, which marks a 158% increase compared to 2020 (4,563 youths and lecturers). Furthermore, this year saw 714 students from ten ASEAN countries across the region competing to represent their country in the National Finals.

The National Finals was also live-streamed on Facebook.

“2021 marks the fifth-year milestone for the ASEAN DSE competition. Initially starting as a platform to empower youths with digital skills to grow the next generation of leaders, this year, we have added climate action as a key focus in our program, This sharpened focus is aligned with the ASEAN priorities. I am proud of the diversity of ideas the participants brought to this initiative. Their passion for creating social impact is impressive. ASEAN DSE continues to play a role in educating and inspiring the future workforce by enabling youths so that we, as one ASEAN, can be a sustainable economic powerhouse,” said Mr. Atul Tuli, Managing Director of SAP Indochina.

“ASEAN DSE is the embodiment of our commitment with SAP to empower ASEAN youth with future-ready skills and accelerate the growth of the digital economy in the region amid this difficult period. We are very impressed to see so many talented youths presenting innovative data-driven proposals today. It is a testament to what our youth can do when provided with an immersive platform to showcase their talents. We believe that if given the opportunity, our ASEAN youth can create impactful solutions for the community to prosper. We also hope that the collaboration between ASEAN Foundation and SAP can inspire more public-private partnerships in the future to support the development of our future generation,” added Dr. Yang Mee Eng, ASEAN Foundation’s Executive Director.