Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi Aspiring Emirati entrepreneurs in Abu Dhabi will soon be able to get entrepreneurial skills training and hands-on corporate experience as part of a new deal between the the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development and non-profit business education organisation Injaz-UAE.
The Dh1.5-million partnership, which was announced by senior executives yesterday, will make possible the training of 4,000 Emirati students between the ages of 13 and 24.
Speaking at a conference held to announce the three-year partnership, Shaikh Khalid Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of Injaz-UAE, said paying attention to entrepreneurial aspirations was particularly important.
We cannot overlook the importance of entrepreneurship education in the region, especially now that youth unemployment figures are alarmingly high across the region, Shaikh Khalid said.
Culture of innovation
The Injaz-UAE training sessions will also uniquely target schoolchildren in a bid to create a culture of innovation, said Dr Ahmad Khalil Al Mutawa, chief executive officer of the Khalifa Fund.
Most entrepreneurial training programmes target business students or those who have already decided to open up their own businesses. The Injaz training is therefore particularly important because it exposes young children to the skills needed for self-employment and seeks to spark an interest towards enterprise among them, he add ed.
Dr Al Mutawa also told Gulf News that the partnership was likely to extend into the future, and could even be geared towards elementary schoolchildren and young families in future.
According to statistics presented at the conference, 64 per cent of Emirati youth had plans to set up their own businesses in the next five years. This training will provide them with the hands-on training they require while allowing them to learn from real-life corporate executives as well as teachers from international business education organisation Junior Achievement, said Sulaf Al Zubi, Injaz-UAE CEO.
By Samihah Zaman?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
