COUNTRY FOCUS: JORDAN
Tech Summit
The country has also recently hosted Tech
Summit which aims to bridge the gap
between education and employment.
The summit, organised by UNICEF
and NetHope, in collaboration with
nine United Nations agencies and
non-governmental organisations from
the ‘No Lost Generation’ initiative and
Orange Jordan, brought together young
people from all over the Middle East and
North Africa.
“Young people around the region are
keen to find solutions to the challenges
they face in securing paid and dignified
employment,” said Geert Cappelaere,
UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle
East and North Africa.
“This summit offered a unique
opportunity to engage young people in
creatively finding change for themselves
and their peers. But it’s a drop in the
ocean and much more needs to be done
in this critical area.”
The Middle East and North Africa region
has the highest youth unemployment
rate in the world, at nearly 30% in North
Africa and over 22% across the rest of
the region.
For young females, unemployment rates are
even higher, reaching up to 40% across the
region. Bridging the gap between learning
and earning is one of the main challenges
that young people face once they finish
their education.
“This summit is a step towards the future for
us young people in the region,” said Salam
Freihat, 25, who participated in the summit.
“I have been waiting for this opportunity
to showcase my tech skills to companies
and institutions. Helping to organise the
summit has empowered me to work with
my peers to find solutions to our common
challenges together.”
Young people played an active role in
organising the summit to reflect their
needs, ideas and solutions. The summit was
the first of its kind to engage, involve and
connect these young people – especially
the most vulnerable – to opportunities and
to recognise their leading role in developing
their own capacities.
Huawei to launch ICT Academy
at university
The Balqaa Applied University (BAU) and
Huawei Jordan have signed an agreement
to establish the first Huawei ICT academy
based at a public university to train students
on up-to-date technologies that the
company applies across the world.
The agreement, which was signed during
a ceremony at the Huawei headquarters
in Shenzhen, China, implements a MoU
that the company signed during the World
Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East
and North Africa region that Jordan hosted
in April.
The ambitious agreement aims at training
3,000 engineers and engineering students
over three years.
The agreement with BAU is the first to be
signed with a Jordanian public university,
under which a faculty specialised with
Artificial Intelligence will be established
to provide high-level training that enables
graduates to find jobs in the local market or
a regional market in which Huawei operates.
BAU President Abdullah Zu’bi and Huawei’s
General Manager in Jordan Zhang Liang
signed the agreement, where Zu’bi
expressed the university’s keenness to train
its students in modern technologies such
as 5G.
Charles Yang, President of the Middle East
Region for Huawei, said that the agreement
is important to enhance training in Jordan
and contribute to the transfer of knowledge
and technology.
He added that the company does not
only seek to achieve financial profits,
but also to serve society through
training students and graduates on
modern technologies.
The regional manager added that in
recognition of the Kingdom’s support,
the company is keen to invest in training
in Jordan and transfer knowledge in a
bid to support the national economy
and help it grow.
Zhang Liang, Huawei’s General Manager
in Jordan, expressed the company’s
commitment to the Jordanian labour
market through providing it with
the most modern technologies and
supplying training to university students
in skills required by Huawei so both the
company and the country benefits. n
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