Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) is going to reveal the details of “Egypt’s Future Scientists” initiative in the upcoming days, said Asmaa Hosny, its CEO.
Launched by the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the initiative lasts 5 years with an initial cost of 160 million Egyptian Pounds for year one.
‘Egypt’s Future Scientists’ targets Egyptian youth technology education, aiming to train and qualify Egyptian calibers of university graduates. The initiative will be implemented in partnership with major international institutions and universities to grant accredited certifications in coordination with the Egyptian universities and international ICT companies.
The initiative will provide training programmes for 16,000 students, graduates and entrepreneurs, 5,000 of which will be trained face-to-face and 11,000 to be trained from a distance (i.e.online training) in cooperation with global open online courses providers like Coursera and EDX.
Moreover, the initiative shall provide the programmes’ graduates with job opportunities inside Egypt or overseas.
Hosny said she has met with foreign delegations from Indonesia and Malaysia who showed interest to finance the training of 10,000 Egyptians and offer them suitable jobs after graduation as part of the initiative.
Hosny also pointed out to the reason why Edu Egypt was discontinued. The educational programme, which continued for 8 successive years since 2008, was not able to keep up with market’s need so it had to be terminated.