Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 45 | Page 48

COUNTRY FOCUS: JORDAN This month’s Country Focus examines how the transformative potential of Jordan has been recognised by leading technology companies targeting the country’s up-and- coming talent with ambitious training programmes. ///////////////// Up-and-coming talent targeted by tech companies O Orange Jordan launches programming academy Orange Jordan has opened a coding academy to enhance the cyberskills of the country’s young people. The coding academy will provide students with an opportunity to acquire programming skills with a focus on Java and Python. Fifty young men and women, between the ages of 18 and 30, were officially selected to participate in the first batch of the academy’s project, where they are participating in an intensive six-month free training programme before embarking on a month of work experience at companies 48 INTELLIGENTCIO operating in Jordan. Following its launch, Engineer Muthanna Gharaibeh, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, stressed the importance of having programming academies aimed at developing the digital skills of the country’s young men and women. He said that the government is working on several programmes to qualify trainees to deal efficiently with the requirements of the digital economy and provide them with the programming skills required today. He also thanked Orange Jordan for its involvement in training which, he said, enabled the country to keep up with current technological developments and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Terry Marini, Orange Jordan CEO, said it was the first academy of its kind opened by the Orange International Group in the Middle East. He explained it was launched in partnership with Simplon.Co International and expects it to achieve the same success as the other programming academies launched by the group in Senegal and France. Marini stressed that Information Technology, including programming languages, plays an important role in the national economy and cited the increasing number of jobs in the technology sector as evidence. He explained www.intelligentcio.com