Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021

THE SECOND DAY AT AQUATECH AND 11TH DAY DOING WETSKILLS ONLINE

Posted on November 4, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills The Netherlands By Zintle Pretty Mbeka (South Africa) & Yudi Zhang (China)   Its deadline day today for the Poster and the Paper. I was sitting at home (South Africa) waiting for updates from my teammates to get ready to write the blog and help with finalizing our tasks. As someone who did Wetskills 2021 South Africa online, it was not hard to be able to participate and having such wonderful and amazing teammates, who made sure that I get updates and they involve me in everything and all the major decisions, made things so much easy for me and they made me feel like I was there in person with them. I felt their love from afar.       Everyone was so focused and concentrating on their laptops as it is a deadline day. A day to also practice their Pitches as the finals are close.               Good ideas start from brainstorming and the best...

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Visiting AQUA TECH

Posted on November 3, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Lamya AL Jabri (Oman)   On Monday, the 1st November 2021, we gathered at the hostel to work on our case studies as usual and the weather was colder than yesterday, but the sun fully covered the city. My team looked fresh in the morning with full energy to work hard and that’s probably because we chose to setup and work on the couch than normal 😊 We arrived the AQUA TECH and all participants received the guide and informative books at the entrance to get more insight about the AQUA TECH. While others attended the Battle of the Gladiators by AquaTech, Team 1 (heavy rain case) had an online meeting with their case owner. At the end of this day following the networking and official opening ceremony for AquaTech, all the teams went to an Iranian restaurant to have dinner while myself and other Omani girls had late dinner at the...

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Explorations and Halloween Celebration

Posted on November 3, 2021
in Uncategorized, Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Ruqaia AL-Shibli (Sultanate of Oman) and Karabo Mokoena (South Africa)   Like any Sunday, the day started with some relaxation and enjoying the rain. Some participants visited Giethoorn which is located in the north of the Netherlands. In Giethoorn, a typically Dutch village in Overijssel, you experience the Dutch culture and their love to live with and on water. In an environment full of lakes, reed beds and forests, lies this picturesque village with beautiful farms that have thatched roofs and characteristic wooden bridges. Not forgetting the delicious food from restaurants and cafes. It was definitely a wonderful time in this city.     The end of summertime and the start of wintertime, saw the participants enjoying a Halloween party with good music and a good round of karaoke.         The best way to end the previous week and transition into the final week and the buzz of final preparations....

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From the rollercoaster to the business canvas

Posted on November 1, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands By Nina Meijer  (Netherlands)   During Wetskills, some days are a rollercoaster of location visits, BrainHurricanes, speeddates and international cooking, while other days you find yourself comfortably and quietly working on the challenge. Today was one of those days. We are now at a point in the Wetskills-process where we have to tailor our dream castles into more detailed solutions. To help us do that, Marcel introduced us to the ‘Business Model Canvas’, a kind of scheme that invites you to think about your key activities and resources, revenues, value propositions, partners, customers etc. Together with my teammates, we not only pieced together our canvas, but were able to sharpen our ideas as well.   After lunch, the weekend-vibe took over and one by one I saw my co-participants sneak off to discover different corners of Amsterdam. Being one of the ‘local’ participants, I was happy to recommend the famous Albert Cuyp-market,...

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A great discussion

Posted on November 1, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Ruqaia AL-Shibli   On Friday, ( 29 / October/ 2021 ) , all the teams gathered at the courtyard of the hostel to discuss the results of the research of all the teams participating in the Water Challenge Program through an innovation carrousel. A Wetskills innovation carrousel is aimed at improving each team's innovation ideas to make sure that each idea is innovative, suitable and scalable prior to the Wetskills Finals where all ideas will be pitched to the jury.     Each team presented the findings of the research, presented some draft innovative ideas, and answered the questions from the rest of the group.   After that, each team wrote ideas and problems to discuss and try to develop thetopic. ...

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Work & Travel

Posted on October 29, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Miruna Ilieș (Romania)   Each team started their day by working on their cases. For several hours, everyone worked together to meet their goals. By now, we had gone through some intense training and researching, and we are even more dedicated than when we started.     After all the intense work, we took a break to fully enjoy all the light that the sun had to offer; we went on a bike adventure! But before that, some of us received lessons on how to ride a bike.       The experiment failed, but we gained lots of memories.   The  trip was wonderful with lots of beautiful views, national parks and bridges to cross; and most importantly, it was fun! By biking to different spots, we visited many interesting projects that were implemented in the area or that are going to be implemented in the near future. At the end, we also gained more knowledge on the developments in the...

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Wetskills Diversity

Posted on October 29, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Kawthar AlBalushi (Sultanate of Oman)   I had an exciting day working together with my team digging to find a solution for our case that has been assigned to us. I saw the participants’ eagerness from other teams as well, and I believe we will all come up with great ideas and innovative solutions by the end of the program.   Today we had pitch and poster training, there were many valuable things to learn and tips to consider when we make a pitch. We had fun practicing pitches with prepared and non-prepared subjects to speak about within 30 seconds. That was challenging! Comments of everyone’s pitches and the way of improvement was discussed.                         Finally, we ended our day with international food event from different countries (Romania, Oman, Palestine, Taiwan, China, South Africa, and Netherlands) representing the diversity of Wetskills participants. We had different traditional types of appetizers, main dishes and desserts...

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First Beginnings

Posted on October 28, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Giovanni Arah van de Weg   Today was one of the first days of working on our challenges. After team building for the first few days, it was nice to start working on the project and to really think out the next steps in the Plan of Action. It gave us guidance and direction as to what to focus on and where to go. I am sure all groups have made good progress with regards to the challenges. But then it’s always to remember that a plan is a plan, and for plans to work - sometimes you need to be flexible enough to change the plan. As in the words of Marcel: “The schedule [planning of the week], is flexible. You can make the plan, change the plan. If you have good ideas, change the plan because the plan is not rigid, and it can be changed.”   Today I...

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Professional Tour

Posted on October 28, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands by Hayam Rashid Al-Balushi (Oman)   On Monday (25/10/2021), at 9:00 AM, all groups gathered together at the hostel to start the professional tour around Amsterdam with Waternet company guides. We did a lot of walking around the lower area of Amsterdam while it was raining. It is wonderful. Guided by Mr. Frank from the Waternet company, we went to the maintenance area in Amsterdam where he told us about how the area was rehabilitated to be a suitable area for people to live in it. He told us that it was refilled by sand and paved to qualify it to build buildings. We walked around the area through the beautiful paths in one of the parks in the area, and took a lot of beautiful pictures.       Then he showed us sewage pumping station that takes sewage water from the houses through the pipes directly to water treatment station.       Then we went to...

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Sunny days and the Crazy 88

Posted on October 27, 2021
in Wetskills Netherlands 2021, Wetskills-The Netherlands 2021
by Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

2021 Wetskills Netherlands By Karabo Mokoena (South Africa)   The sun welcomed us like a warm hug to Zeemburg, as participants from different cities met and warmed up to the upcoming week of authentic learning and international networking. After a tram trip to the city centre, participants enjoyed a boat ride around the beautiful city of Amsterdam and learned about its amazing.   To break the ice and to encourage socialising between participant, we were subjected to a crazy 88 game challenge between two teams, that required us to do some “questionable” tasks that were fun and definitely showed the competitiveness of some members. We had tree hugging, serious marking, and innovative ways to make sure we knew the covid rules and the appropriate way to wear a mask during a pandemic.   To end the beautiful day, we had a fun and interactive dinner at a lovely restaurant to start the programme with a bang!...

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Wetskills is an independent Foundation based in The Netherlands. Wetskills is part of the Human Capital Agenda of the Dutch water sector. KNW Waternetwerk, the Royal Netherlands Water Network, is the (financial) administrator for Wetskills Foundation.

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