Tech giants to hire Arab coders

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Tech giants to hire Arab coders

Dubai - Since its launch, the initiative has attracted over one million registrations.

by

Sherouk Zakaria

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Published: Mon 5 Nov 2018, 8:54 PM

Last updated: Tue 6 Nov 2018, 9:45 AM

One Million Arab Coders Initiative will give its participants chances to be hired by giant tech companies in Dubai, it was announced on Monday.

Know the One Million Arab Coders Initiative
> Enrol at arabcoders.ae in one of the two categories: Arab students or tutors
> Different courses are offered for nine weeks
> Participants have to complete three-month virtual coding programmes
> Top 1,000 students  will receive certificates and enrol in the Coder Challenge
> Top 10 students in the challenge will be announced at the end of the competition
> The first-place winner to receive a prize of $1,000,000, while the remaining nine will be awarded $50,000 each
How the programme helps participants
Emirati participant Othman Abdelrahman Al Hammadi, head of Urban Planning Section at Al Dhafra Region Municipality, said the programme helped him hone his skills in the workforce without having to travel for miles.
"Part of our responsibility in the municipality is data analysis. I wanted to learn how to transform data into information we can use to make decisions that impacts residents positively," said 40-year-old Al Hammadi.
He completed the data analysis specialist programme, with aims to join more courses to receive a nanodegree. He said while he has to travel 300km to work everyday, the programme gave him access to information at the comfort of his own home and office. "It was very easy to solve problems and study online at our own comfort," said Al Hammadi.
Hailing from Egypt, Mohammed Sameer wanted to complete the Android Development programme that was otherwise offered for an expensive price back in the Egypt.
"The platform offered the content for free with Arabic subtitles and tutors who made information easy," the 23-year-old graduate said.
Currently an Android developer at Readyapps in Egypt, he said the platform gave him the experience he needed to add a competitive value to the tech company.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday met over 130 top students of the pan-Arab initiative that he announced last year to equip young Arabs with coding and programing skills, on the sidelines of an event held to honour the participants in the One Million Arab Coders Initiative.
Celebrating over 375,000 young Arab participants in the initiative, Sheikh Mohammed said: "My goal is to reach one million young Arab programers in three years. Coding is language of the future and the most important tool in the knowledge-based economy. We aim to create real opportunities for [programers] in the new world economy through empowering them with programming skills."
Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), told the media that the 130 coders who attended are from 250 participants who finished their nanodegrees in machine learning and data science across the Arab World. They got connected with tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook in an open day that the foundation organised on Monday.
He added that the participants will also take part in the Dubai Future Accelerators that aims to connect government entities with private sector and international startups to come up with projects that provide solutions for global and local challenges.
"The participants in Dubai today have learned skills that they can use to partner with startups and speed up the projects in place," said Belhoul. "They will also gain experience and get the chance to apply what they have learned in the programme."
Initiative in full swing
Since its launch, the initiative has attracted over one million registrations, among which 375,000 participants are in the process of becoming computer literates and software developers. The programme graduated over 22,000 participants so far.
Open to people at all ages, the free online platform aims to train web developers, data analyst specialists, web experts and android app gurus.
Belhoul said different courses are offered for nine weeks, which allows the foundation to target one million graduates in a span of two years with the support of over 3,700 tutors and teachers across the Arab World.
Participants can take part in any of the eight cohorts throughout the initiative's duration with a new journey that starts every three months.
The initiative aims to help Arabs gain new employment opportunities and empower them with the skills needed to contribute to the development of the digital economy.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com


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