On Friday, May 8, the Dakar Foundation Apprenticeship Academy captured highlights from the Learn Basic Tech Lab, an intensive AI learning experience designed to introduce community residents, students, and emerging workforce candidates to practical technology skills that could lead to competitive career placements in every growth industry.
The day featured hands-on instruction, behind-the-scenes media production, and real-time participation from Dakar’s registered apprenticeship program. These rough cuts offer an early look at the workflow, energy, and sound bites from key participants who helped bring the experience to life.
The session concluded with a laptop giveaway, reinforcing the event’s mission: expanding digital access, building confidence with AI tools, and creating pathways into technology, media, and workforce opportunity.
This footage will be stitched together in post-production as part of a mini-documentary highlighting the people, partnerships, and community impact behind the May 8th Learn Basic Tech Lab campaign to upskill the Delete The Divide constituents of Los Angeles County.
Our Apprenticeship team successfully produced and streamed a cinematic broadcast using RED Komodo and a RED Scarlett cinema cameras, delivering a professional-quality visual experience directly to our YouTube channel through our T-Mobile Jetstream WiFi 5G solution providing reliable Wi-Fi 6 bandwidth. This workflow showcased Dakar’s growing capacity to merge cinema-grade production, mobile broadband technology, and hands-on apprenticeship training into a real-world broadcast environment.
The Dakar team converted the beautiful Oracle Water Garden training room in Santa Monica to a broadcast studio and media hub for a crew of 10 — It became a living classroom for the future of technology, community access, and workforce development engineered by friend of Dakar Foundation, Walter Tucker and Patrick Sims
Hosted with the support of Oracle and its philanthropic commitment to digital opportunity, the event brought together LA County Internal Services Department, its community technology initiative Delete The Divide, Learn Basic Tech, KTLA,‘s Riche DeMuro and the Dakar Foundation’s registered apprenticeship media production team for an intensive 8-hour master class: Unlocking AI Essentials for Beginners.
The room reflected the real Los Angeles County community — residents ranging from 18 to 70 years old, AI trainers, first-time learners, working adults, and student apprentices from Dakar’s registered apprenticeship program.
Together, they explored how artificial intelligence can become a practical tool for education, employment, storytelling, entrepreneurship, and everyday life.
As the official media partner, Dakar Foundation captured the event through a cinematic broadcast and short-form documentary lens, producing behind-the-scenes coverage, interviews, social media content, and participant sound bites that will be stitched together in post-production for a mini-documentary.
The media workflow was strengthened with the support of KTLA producer Patrick Sims and coverage from KTLA Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro, whose presence helped spotlight the importance of basic tech education, community storytelling, and equitable access to emerging technology.
KTLA producer Patrick Sims was on-site, alongside KTLA’s tech reporter Rich DeMuro’s Producer, whose coverage helped spotlight the importance of making AI education understandable and accessible to everyday people.
Their presence elevated the message that AI is no longer just for engineers, coders, or large corporations — it is quickly becoming a basic digital skill for everyone.
At the same time, the Dakar Foundation media production team captured and supported the day through live broadcast production, giving apprentices real-world experience in camera operation, audio, lighting, interviews, live-streaming, and field production.
This was not just a class about technology — it was a hands-on demonstration of how media, workforce training, and community service can come together in real time, courtesy of Patrick Sims .
Throughout the day, participants learned AI fundamentals, asked questions, engaged with trainers, and began building confidence around tools that are shaping the future of work.
For many, this was a first meaningful step into the AI economy. For Dakar’s apprentices, it was another opportunity to practice professional production skills while documenting a major civic technology initiative.
The event showed what happens when philanthropy, public agencies, media, and community-based apprenticeship programs align around one goal: closing the digital divide before the AI divide gets even wider.
From Oracle’s Santa Monica campus to LA County residents, from Red Cinema Cameras to Dakar’s live production workflow, the message was clear:
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