Three higher education bodies in the UAE have recently partnered with technology company Hewlett-Packard (HP) to set up the company’s youth entrepreneurship and information technology (IT) education programme Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT programme (GET-IT).

Zayed University, Dubai Women’s College and the Entrepreneur Business Village have set up centres on campus where HP has provided the equipment and training to lecturers and training is provided free of charge to unemployed youth, graduates and budding young entrepreneurs.

The GET-IT programme trains unemployed youth and graduates between 16 and 25, and helps potential entrepreneurs acquire IT skills with the aim of becoming better placed to create and run their own businesses. GET-IT courses focus on areas such as finance, management, marketing and technology management.

Candidates for the UAE institutions have already been selected, the technology already delivered and installed and trainers trained. Classes will start in a few weeks.

HP is hoping to train 3,000 students from the Middle East this year. Of this figure 1,000 will be from the UAE.

 Unemployment — a major issue

Jeannette Weisschuh, director of global citizenship at HP, said the company calls for proposals once a year and those selected receive a $100,000 (Dh367,240) grant which includes technology equipment, expertise from HP personnel and software to support an innovative university project.

"We’ve done market search and identified one of the issues as youth unemployment. You won’t believe it but around the world there are large numbers of unemployed youth." She said unemployment in the Middle East averages at 30 per cent for those between 16 and 25. Europe is at 14 per cent and Africa at 30 to 40 per cent.

"This is a huge issue — they [graduates] have a good education leaving university but don’t have a business or job opportunities," said Weisschuh. She explained that people who come to the centre get hands-on training where they learn about the daily challenges of running businesses with the help of technology.

Also supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), HP has set up centres to run the GET-IT programme in 33 countries in Africa and the Middle East. They include Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

HP and its partners have now rolled out the GET-IT programme in nearly 100 centres in 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching out to more than 43,000 people through online and offline training courses. They plan to grow GET-IT to reach more than 500,000 young people by 2010.

 The key is entrepreneurship

"The UNIDO-HP partnership aims at addressing the high level of unemployment among young people in developing countries by integrating them into the labour market through successful entrepreneurship," said Kandeh K.Yumkella, UNIDO Director-General.

"HP and UNIDO together have provided IT technology and training to promote innovative uses of information and communication technologies to support entrepreneurship, help encourage economic development and create new business opportunities. It is essential to keep expanding this initiative to reach as many communities as possible and to continue assisting countries in Africa and the Middle East in educating their young generation in IT."

 

For more information on the HP GET-IT programme, visit www.graduate-training-through-it.net/