Build digital skills. Share what works.

The Apprentice Innovation Workshop Series equips participants with practical skills in digital technologies and innovation processes. Throughout the program, apprentices are introduced to Computer-Aided Design (CAD), 3D printing, laser cutting, embedded electronics and programming, artificial intelligence, and project management. Participants work on a practical innovation challenge that is defined in collaboration with their training companies, ensuring that the learning experience is directly connected to real business needs. Between workshop sessions, participants complete manageable assignments that allow them to deepen their knowledge and further develop their projects. Working in interdisciplinary teams, they apply newly acquired skills to design, prototype, and refine innovative solutions while strengthening collaboration, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Target: Other

A digital delivery of the SAME design thinking methodology as Module 1, through the DiSTT app (distt.dfa.fablab.hr — a DiSTT-adapted version of dfa-app). Instead of a blank page, AI generates a small fictional community of three stakeholders (a craftsperson, an employee in retraining, a secondary student), each with their own story and problem. The user interviews them through chat and, across 5 short phases, defines the problem, designs a solution and tests it back on them — independently, with no physical material, in short repeatable sessions (e.g. 10 minutes over morning coffee). The goal is not a one-off workshop but building a habit of thinking through repetition (a 3/7/30-day streak system). Actual time depends on personal abailities and short with practice!

Target: Unprivileged

This module guides learners from a recognised real-world problem to a first concept solution. Through the design thinking process — understanding the user and the problem, generating ideas and sketching an initial prototype — participants work in pairs or small teams on a real everyday problem, define the user, goal and solution idea, and build an early mock-up from cardboard or other secondary materials. The workshop is designed as an accessible entry point with no formal prerequisites, built on the principle that the problem being solved always belongs to someone else — a person, a community, or the environment — never to the learner.

Target: Unprivileged