Twente wants to remain a knowledge region, and that means AI education

On the 19th of May, I attended the AI Summit Twente at the Parkgebouw in Rijssen, organised by IKT together with Ondernemend Twente and VMO. It was an afternoon of sharp insights from speakers including Haroon Sheikh, Jelle Prins and Pieter Omtzigt. Each approached the topic from a different angle, but all delivered the same underlying message: AI is rapidly transforming our economy, our labour market and the way we work. The question is no longer whether you get involved, but how you do so responsibly.

What stuck with me most came from Pieter Omtzigt's reflections on Twente's approach to AI. He highlighted, among other things, that Overijssel currently has relatively few serious AI courses and training programmes, even though this region aims to position itself as a knowledge hub. That doesn't add up. If the message is that AI is the future and you need to get on board now, then businesses, public authorities and healthcare providers need somewhere to learn how to do that wisely. Where do you start? How do you choose a tool? How do you stay within the boundaries of the AI Act and GDPR? And how do you bring your organisation along?

Omtzigt's contribution didn't stop at analysis. Several Twente-based entrepreneurs and educational institutions made an on-the-spot call to join forces on AI education in the region. That resonated with me, because this is something we have been working on for years. We offer several certified AI courses at multiple locations in the Netherlands, and recently in Belgium as well, including the CAICO^®, the CAILI^® and the CLEA^®. Bringing these to Twente would be a natural next step.

Why Twente makes practical sense

We have an office in Enschede, at The Gallery on the University of Twente campus. It's not just a pleasant place to work; it's a strategic location. Our position on campus gives us access to nearby lecture halls, exactly what you need for training groups of business owners, public authorities and healthcare organisations in a setting that suits the subject matter.

We've already had initial conversations with the parties who made this call, exploring how we can offer our courses here. We don't have specific dates yet, but more information will follow shortly through various business networks.

To introduce ourselves and help organisations in the region understand what's possible, we will be organising a number of inspiration sessions in Twente. During these sessions, we'll tell you more about our various courses, explain the differences between them and show you what they could mean for your organisation in practice. We're currently scheduling the dates and will share them as soon as they're confirmed. In the meantime, let me give you an overview of what the three courses cover, as each has a different focus and appeals to quite different audiences.

Our approach: practical, with trainers who practise what they teach

Before I describe the courses, one thing upfront. We apply the same approach to these courses that defines us. Our trainers are practitioners with deep expertise in AI, law and implementation. No abstract theory, no generic content you could find anywhere, but practical, well-founded knowledge you can apply directly in your own organisation. You leave with tools you can use for the challenges you face on Monday morning.

CAILI^®: learning how to implement AI responsibly in your organisation

I'm genuinely enthusiastic about all three courses, but the CAILI^® (Certified AI Lead Implementer) is, in my view, the best fit for the concrete questions raised at the AI Summit and for the broader challenges facing Overijssel. Namely: how do you actually get started with AI, what does it mean in practice for your organisation, what are the benefits, and how do you take those first steps without things going wrong? These are precisely the questions the CAILI^® answers.

The course is designed for people who want to give AI practical shape within their organisation. Think of directors and board members, programme and project managers, innovation and change managers, IT managers, product owners and advisers. You don't need a technical background.

What sets the CAILI^® apart from many other AI courses is that you don't go home with just a certificate and a stack of slides. You leave with your own tailored AI Guide: a practical document bringing together your policies, guidelines and working methods around AI, customised to your organisation. During the course, you develop this AI Guide step by step. You first learn how AI governance works and how to set up AI policy. You get hands-on with effective prompting and Custom GPTs. Then you translate a business problem into a concrete AI use case. You learn to select AI tools based on both functionality and compliance, and you create an implementation and change plan with stakeholder analysis, a roadmap and a pilot and testing programme.

On the exam day, you present your AI Guide to the group. For me, this is one of the strongest elements. You receive feedback not only from the trainers, but also from other participants, who often come from completely different sectors and bring fresh perspectives to your document. That feedback goes straight into your document, so you end up with an AI Guide that truly fits your situation. Not an academic exercise, but a working document you can build on. This time you really know how to get started, and you've already made the connection to your own organisation. That's what makes this course special.

The AI Guide is exactly what organisations need right now, and it's what distinguishes the CAILI^® from other courses on the market.

CAICO^®: the compliance and governance side of AI

The CAICO^® (Certified AI Compliance Officer) is a different course for a different audience. Where the CAILI^® focuses on implementation and change, the CAICO^® focuses on compliance and governance. This course is for professionals responsible for the legal and ethical frameworks around AI within their organisation. Think of lawyers, solicitors, notaries, data protection officers, privacy officers, CISOs, risk and compliance officers, IT auditors, data specialists and project managers with a compliance role.

Put simply: you need the CAILI^® if you want to introduce AI in the organisation and ask the right questions along the way. You need the CAICO^® if you need to assess whether it's permitted, whether it's safe and whether it complies with the rules.

The CAICO^® goes deep into the AI Act and the seven requirements for trustworthy AI. You learn how to qualify and classify AI systems, how to ensure transparency and explainability, how to deal with the black box problem and which forms of human oversight suit which situations. Robustness, security and data governance are covered, as is the broader societal dimension: diversity, non-discrimination and accountability. You work through realistic case studies and learn how to analyse AI issues, translate them into control measures and provide legal justification. This course currently holds an average rating of 8.0 out of 10, something we are very proud of.

In a municipality, healthcare institution or medium-sized business, the CAILI^® and CAICO^® often complement each other well: one person driving implementation, another safeguarding compliance. They can also be taken separately, in any order.

CLEA^®: for legal professionals who want to build

Then there's the CLEA^® (Certified Legal Engineer in AI). This is the newest of the three and the most niche. The course is designed for legal professionals who don't just want to understand what AI can do, but want to design and build legal AI applications themselves. Think of a DPIA assistant, a data breach triage bot or a classification tool under the AI Act. No programming experience is required, but you do need a legal background and a willingness to get hands-on.

Over three practical days, you progress from building a simple Custom GPT to creating a reusable workflow with skills and tool integrations, and ultimately to a working prototype with attention to deployment, management, security and ownership. You finish with a build portfolio and a short demo, not a written exam. The target audience is clearly smaller than for the CAILI^® or CAICO^®, but for lawyers who want to move from advising to building, and prepare for how AI could change legal work in the future, it's an excellent course.

An in-house programme for your sector or region

What we increasingly hear in our conversations with organisations in Twente and beyond is demand for an in-house variant. All three courses can be delivered on-site, and this often works very well. We see particular value in this for the CAILI^®, because you work with a group of people who share the same context, the same stakeholders and the same rules.

We've received requests from various sectors that would like to follow a tailored CAILI^® programme together. For example, a group of municipalities or public authorities from Overijssel could participate jointly. Each public authority develops its own AI Guide, but you learn a great deal from the questions, dilemmas and solutions of your neighbouring municipalities. In practice, parties make progress much faster this way than when they each try to work it out on their own. The same applies to healthcare providers, where challenges around patient data, medical decision-making and liability often overlap considerably. An in-house programme tends to work very well there too, precisely because you learn from each other.

Interested?

We're working hard to offer the CAICO^®, CAILI^® and CLEA^® in Twente, from our location at The Gallery on the University of Twente campus, using nearby lecture halls. Specific dates will follow as soon as we can share them. We'll also announce dates for inspiration sessions to tell you more about what our courses could mean for your organisation.

Interested, or would you prefer an in-house programme for your team, your municipality, your healthcare organisation or your sector? Get in touch. We're happy to help.