Dubai,June 28th, 2006 (WAM) -- H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum IT Education Project (ITEP) announced strategic support for Al Thiqah Employment and Rehabilitation Project at a press conference held today at Al Thiqah's new office in Sharjah.

Under the agreement, ITEP will provide every year, customised IT training for approximately 60-70 Al Thiqah students with physical challenges.

Sheikh Mohammad Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of Al Thiqah said, IT competency is an enabler that will considerably expand the employability of our students. Through this agreement we hope to move closer to achieving our objective of integrating people with special needs as independent and contributing members of society.One of the essential components of our strategy is to focus on supporting the IT related educational requirements of people with special needs.

ITEP's IT literacy drive has embraced the Tamkeen's students with visual impairment. We have also been involved in training the students with hearing impairment of Al Thiqah Club for Handicapped. Dr. Abdullah Al Karam, Director of ITEP said. This agreement takes forward our ongoing efforts to enhance IT skills of people with physical challenges, which in turn is important for the overall development of the society, he added.

The IT programme will commence with the training of 20 students under the first cycle. The courses will be supervised by a qualified team of IT experts who will adopt simple ways of teaching both the theoretical and the practical elements of the course.

Al Thiqah Employment and Rehabilitation Project for Handicapped, said Haider Talib Erabeh, Manager of the Project, is a humanitarian initiative that aims at developing the skills of the people with physical challenges so that they can avail better job opportunities.Developing the idea further we are working on establishing new businesses based on IT skills that will enable our students to compete with normal people in the market. This underlines the importance of the agreement, he added. The IT programme will include a series of courses highlighting basic computer skills, managing files and operating systems Al Thiqah's first employment project was a typing office for the Economic Department of Sharjah's branch office in the industrial area.

H.H.Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum IT Education Project (ITEP) was initiated in the year 2000 by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, as part of his inspirational educational strategy to create the UAE Knowledge Economy.

At its inception in 2000, ITEP began teaching IT in schools. ITEP now provides courses in 40 high schools in the UAE (20 in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi) with over 13,000 students attending the programme every year. Following the success of the schools project, ITEP extended its operations to support the UAE government's e-overnment initiative by providing IT training programs to government departments besides delivering customized IT programmes for special needs service sector.