You can imagine the challenges this pandemic has imposed on the Syrian ladies from a guest community in Abu Dhabi. To continue with their sewing training in our Basmat Amal Sewing for Livelihood programme seemed impossible 2 months ago at the start of the COVID pandemic.

Yesterday, we resumed the workshops and had a successful Zoom session brushing up on past lessons and learning a new one. How did we do it? We identified 3 components that were necessary:

1) equipment
2) online connectivity
3) streamlined lesson plan.

SKILLS3 sent each lady a sewing machine, haberdashery and fabric supplies plus the projects and patterns separated in sealed bags. They received assistance in setting up wifi connection to be able to attend our Zoom class meetings from their homes. Apart from the Zoom meetings, SKILLS3 will be sending over links to tutorials and closely monitor their work through WhatsApp photos and chats. A timetable is set for the projects which are carefully curated for simplicity and relevance. As you can see from the photos, they successfully learned how to make a fabric mask yesterday.

Creative adaptation to a changing global way of learning. This is the future of upskilling.