Arizona State University’s (ASU) Thunderbird School of Global Management (Thunderbird), announced that its global initiative to educate and empower 100 million learners by 2030 will be available to learners in the Middle East. Under the initiative, Thunderbird will offer an online Global Management and Entrepreneurship Certificate, consisting of five world-class courses in 40 different languages, including Arabic. The certificate will be covered by full scholarships and thus will be made available at no cost to learners due to a historic $25 million donation from the Francis and Dionne Najafi Global Initiative.
The programme will be rolled out through the school’s centre of excellence in Dubai . Learners can pre-register at www.100millionlearners.org to be notified when courses are released in the desired language. Starting April 8, 2022, the first course will be available in English.
Thunderbird Director General and Dean, Dr. Sanjeev Khagram, who was in Dubai for the launch, says: “We are using Dubai as a launchpad to drive regional transformation through our 100 Million Learners programme to educate and empower learners in the Middle East, whether it be women, entrepreneurs, or refugees. Education can transform lives, and my life is an example of that. My family of humble origins in India moved to the USA as refugees from Idi Amin’s Uganda. My father had technical education, but my mother never went to college. I was blessed, because of their sacrifices, with a world-class education that transformed my life. I want millions in the Middle East to have access to that world class education, at no cost, to transform their lives.”
The event in Dubai was attended by Mohammed Alblooshi, Sector Head Fintech & Innovation at DIFC; Ali Jawad, Head of Royal Leadership Academy of Oman; Nada Al Harthi, Former VP for Business Affairs at Zain, Saudi Arabia; and Naji El-Khalil, Human Resource Manager at MAK Holdings Limited.
“Our lives were transformed by access to quality education at Thunderbird and we wanted to extend that same transformative experience to people around the world who lack access to quality education,” said the Najafis.
Learners will receive a badge for each course they complete and a Thunderbird executive education certificate upon successful completion of all five courses. They will also have an almost limitless number of lifelong learning options and alternative educational pathways through Thunderbird and ASU and may even apply for an accredited 15-unit certificate from ASU Thunderbird upon completion.
In year one, the Global Initiative aims to reach learners in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, Colombia, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Indonesia, Senegal, Brazil, and Vietnam in ten languages. By year two, the program will be expanded across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America to at least 25 languages. By year four or earlier, it will be expanded to Europe and Central Asia and 40 total languages. Eventually, the initiative will be available for all learners worldwide, reaching 100 million learners.
