Leveraging the Design Thinking Approach to Improve ICT Skills for Students in Higher Learning Institutions: The Case of FinHub Tanzania

There are different paradigms to develop students’ skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve their competence. As a training approach, design thinking has been widely adopted in innovation for skills enhancement and product development. Design thinking ensures that the developed innovative products meet the market needs and hence solve societal challenges. However, limited research is available in Tanzania on the impact of innovative training approaches including design thinking on enhancing skills. Therefore, this study analyzes the role of the design thinking approach in enhancing students’ ICT skills whilst fostering successful product development. This study adopts the exploratory case study approach, and the case study is FinHub in Tanzania. The results show significant improvement in the students’ skills and the quality of the products developed. Survey results showed 97.9% of the respondents agreed that combining the design thinking approach with technical skills, enhanced the development of new products. The contextual learning, collaborative dynamics, and adaptability promoted by design thinking were also mentioned and established to be well-suited to the needs of the ICT industry. This study contributes to understanding the innovation methods that best enhance learning outcomes in higher education by highlighting the practical application of using design thinking. The findings underscore the importance of integrating real-world challenges into the learning process, thereby enhancing student engagement and practical skills development, vital for addressing the evolving demands of the ICT industry. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.