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AI Apprenticeship online course

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Start date: 15 September 2025

AI Apprenticeship: 10 transformative lessons from learning AI by building it

The AI Apprenticeship online course offers a hands-on approach to learning about generative AI, specifically designed for professionals in digital governance, diplomacy, and international relations. Through this course, participants will acquire the skills necessary to navigate the changes AI is bringing to institutions worldwide.

Reviews

Artificial Intelligence

Text – Aurèle Aquillon

Accessories, Glasses, Adult, Male, Man, Person, Jeffrey RosenThe AI Apprenticeship provided a solid introduction to AI and its possible application in government. I was impressed by how easily tailored solutions could be created for complex problems, which will certainly enable us to continually improve our capabilities. Thanks to the course, I am confident in my ability to accompany my institution through this significant shift in a manner that is both responsible and considerate of human factors.

– Mr Aurèle Aquillon, Deputy Head of Regional Coordination Western, Central and Southern Europe, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Switzerland

Text – Folake Olagunju

Body Part, Face, Head, Neck, Person, Photography, Portrait, Happy, Smile, Mouth, Carmen TwillieI signed up for the AI Apprenticeship course to get a better grasp of the basics of AI. It turned out to be both engaging and insightful; it gave me the foundational knowledge I was missing. Now, I am eager to build on what I have gained and to apply it.

– Ms Folake Olagunju, Program Officer, Internet & Cybersecurity, ECOWAS Commission

Text – Sarah Ann Cumberland

Face, Head, Person, Photography, Portrait, Blouse, Clothing, Body Part, Neck, Frown, Sad, Adult, Female, Woman, Lady, Ségolène RoyalThe AI Apprenticeship course opened my eyes to the potential of AI, and I am now quite enthusiastic about learning more. I plan to use my learnings as a base to explore many more resources and, thanks to your course, I am not afraid to experiment and develop practical agents that will support my work.

– Ms Sarah Ann Cumberland, Head of Digital Unit, Department of Communications, WHO, Switzerland

Text – Michal Natorski

Beard, Face, Head, Person, Adult, Male, Man, Photography, Portrait, Tobias NathEveryone in the community of diplomats, officials, and experts dealing with AI in international relations should participate in the AI Apprenticeship course. With relatively modest time and effort investment, you gain a unique and deep insight into the technology shaping today’s global governance institutions and our organisations’ debates and practices. Learning AI by doing AI is the ideal approach. After this course, you will understand AI’s potential and inherent limitations, and you will be able to ask the right questions to the right people about AI.

– Dr Michal Natorski, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University/UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands

Text – Ivana Dunjić

Face, Head, Person, Photography, Portrait, Adult, Female, Woman, Body Part, Neck, Lady, John RishtonAs a young researcher in digital diplomacy and global governance, taking part in this course was an enriching and timely experience. It offered not only theoretical knowledge but also a practical understanding of how generative AI works. The skills I gained have deepened my understanding of the challenges AI poses to diplomacy and governance and will play a key role in shaping my future research endeavours.

– Ms Ivana Dunjić, Research Assistant, Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, Institute of International Politics and Economics (IIPE), Serbia

The course integrates both theoretical and practical components. In the theoretical section, participants will gain a thorough understanding of key AI concepts, while the practical segment will allow them to apply this knowledge by creating their own AI assistant using generative AI tools. Throughout their course projects, participants will leverage their expertise in areas such as diplomacy, international relations, and digital governance to create AI tools that will help optimise their daily jobs and develop skills that are essential for leadership in AI governance and diplomacy.

The most creative and successful participants will be offered the opportunity to join Diplo’s research and teaching activities.

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Diplo’s AI Apprenticeship online course

The AI Apprenticeship course is part of the Diplo AI Campus capacity development programme.

APPLY FOR COURSE - €990Deadline: 25 August 2025

What will you learn?

  • Fundamentals of AI: Understand the foundations of AI, including how it functions, the importance of data, and the significance of models and weights in AI systems.
  • Practical skills: Learn data curation, prompt engineering, AI model fine-tuning, and methods to address issues like AI hallucinations.
  • Generative AI application: Experience how changes in data, prompts, and weights affect AI-generated responses, and apply these insights to your field of interest.
  • Leadership in AI diplomacy: Develop the ability to critically evaluate and utilise AI to address challenges in diplomacy and governance.

Course lecturers

Black Hair, Hair, Person, Head, Face, Photography, Portrait, Clothing, Coat

Katarina Bojović

Director of Digital Diplomacy, Diplo

Jovan Kurbalija

Executive Director, Diplo

Who should apply

  • Diplomats and government officials working on technology and international relations
  • Practitioners in global governance and international organisations
  • Researchers, academics, and postgraduate students focused on AI and its applications in diplomacy
  • Professionals from the corporate sector exploring AI in governance and policy

Overview

The course consists of four bi-weekly modules, combining knowledge acquisition with skill development:

  1. Foundations of AI. The module introduces AI through a brief history, key concepts, and a ‘thinking toolkit’ for understanding it. It unwraps the main concepts, such as types of learning (supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement) and neural networks as the backbone of modern AI. It addresses the limitations of AI models, highlighting why quality data and preparation are essential.
  2. Preparing data for AI models. This module focuses on the input data — the raw material that drives AI systems, and why proper data preparation and cleaning directly impact AI output quality. It introduces concepts such as chunks, i.e. splitting larger data into smaller, more manageable pieces to optimise processing and retrieval, and embeddings for converting chunks into semantic vectors used in AI systems.
  3. Knowledge retrieval. This module shows how AI accesses relevant information using previously prepared vectors. It begins with vector databases, specialised systems for storing and searching vectors. Next, it covers similarity search: how a user query is converted into a vector, the methods used for comparison, and how the closest chunks are identified. Finally, it introduces Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), a method that combines retrieval with answer generation, explaining its benefits and providing a step-by-step example from user query to AI-generated answer.
  4. AI prompting. The final module focuses on the skill of communicating with AI through carefully crafted prompts. Participants first learn the fundamentals of prompt design, how to clearly define context, format, and expectations, followed by more advanced prompting techniques. The module concludes with strategies for optimising and iteratively improving prompts.

 

Tentative topics for AI assistant development

As participants will be working on their own projects involving data collection and chatbot development, they will need to propose a topic of interest for their chatbot and underlying research. They can propose a topic relevant to international relations, diplomacy, or digital governance or select one from those found at the Diplo topics page and DW Observatory topics page.

Also of interest

Artificial Intelligence: Technology, Governance, and Policy Frameworks online course

Cybersecurity Diplomacy online course

Tech Diplomacy online course

Need more info:

DiploFoundation (attn Tanja Nikolic)

Anutruf, Ground Floor, Hriereb Street
Msida, MSD 1675, Malta

+356 21 333 323; admissions@diplomacy.edu

Methodology

The course will last for a total of 9 weeks, structured as follows:

  • 1 week split between the course introduction and the wrap-up
  • 8 weeks dedicated to addressing the course topics individually

The course is based on a hands-on and collaborative learning approach, involving a high level of interaction over an eight-week period. This interaction takes place in two main forms:

  • Asynchronous interaction, using a custom-developed commenting tool
  • Synchronous interaction, through live class meetings held in real time

Each module is discussed over two weeks, during which you are expected to actively engage in the exchange of ideas, examples, and experiences with fellow participants and lecturers from around the world. Modules also include practical work assignments. Weekly interaction concludes with a one-hour live class meeting, conducted via Zoom or as a text-based chat. These sessions provide an opportunity to discuss the week’s topic in real time with the lecturer and other participants.

In the first week of each module, the focus is on theory. Participants engage with course materials and deepen their understanding of the topics. This week concludes with an online class meeting where participants and lecturers discuss the course topics in depth.

The second week of each module is dedicated to practical work. During this time, participants focus on developing their AI assistants, enabling them to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. At the end of the week, there will be an online open-door session where participants can ask questions and seek assistance from lecturers.

To complete the course successfully, an average of 4 to 6 hours of study time per week is required. This includes both synchronous and asynchronous discussions and completing practical work assignments. Throughout the course, you will also receive guidance and personalised feedback on your classwork from the course team.

Course materials and the necessary tools for online interaction and course tasks are provided in a virtual classroom.

Participants who successfully complete the course receive a certificate issued by Diplo Academy, which can be printed or shared electronically.

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Prerequisites

  • Regular internet access
  • An undergraduate university degree, OR 3 years of work experience, and appropriate professional qualifications in diplomacy or international relations
  • Sufficient English language proficiency to undertake postgraduate-level studies

Fees and scholarships

The fee for this course is €990.

  • Diplo alumni are eligible for a 15% discount on the course fee.
  • A limited number of partial scholarships are available for diplomats and professionals working in international relations from developing countries. 
  • Group discounts are available for multiple participants from the same institution.

Applicants are encouraged to actively explore scholarship funding from local or international institutions.

How to apply

Fill out the short form to start your application process for this course.

Applying for financial assistance? Please indicate this on the application form and upload your CV, along with a motivation statement that includes:

  • Details of your relevant professional and educational background
  • Your reasons for applying to the course
  • Why you believe you should be offered the opportunity to participate, and how your participation would benefit you, your institution, and/or your country

Note: Financial assistance from Diplo is available only to applicants from developing countries! Late applications will be considered only if places are still available.

Cancellation policy

A minimum of 15 applications is required for the course to run.

Diplo Academy reserves the right to cancel the course if enrolment is insufficient. In the event of cancellation, Diplo will notify applicants shortly after the application deadline. Applicants who have paid an application fee may either transfer the fee to another course or request a refund.



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