AI Apprenticeship online course

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.

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.

Diplo’s AI Apprenticeship online course

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

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.

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.

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 €690.

• 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.