Winning Students Get Work Experience with Leading IT and Web Development Companies

ABU DHABI, October 5, 2010 - Budding Emirati web designers with an eye to the future gained real-life experience at two of the nation's leading IT companies after winning the Emirates Foundation's Tawteen Programme portal redesign competition.  

The competition gave Emirati students the opportunity to redesign the Tawteen Portal (www.tawteenportal.com), a virtual forum for Emirati career development. Winning designs will be used as templates for the new-look portal, which is in development.

Leading IT and web design companies Injazat Data Systems and Flip Media awarded members of the winning teams internships and masters classes specially tailored to provide students with skills and knowledge that will provide them with the unique benefits of working in a competitive environment.

The first place competition winners Ali Mubarak, Ibrahim Yousef and Omar Abdulla from Abu Dhabi Men's College are completing a two-week internship at Injazat. 

The three said the portal redesign competition gave them valuable experience and the confidence to pursue future web design projects. 

"This experience was extremely useful, more than we had expected," they said. "We are very proud of the knowledge gained and would like to enter other future web-designing competitions, hopefully even participate in an international web-designing competition".  

The second place team of Nayla Abdulaziz Msaiqer and Fatima Abdulaziz Msaiqer, from the Vocational Education and Training Institute in Abu Dhabi, won a two-day master class with Flip Media. 

They said participating in the competition had been an important step towards achieving their greater goal of getting "real world" experience.  

"This is what Tawteen bridged," Fatima Msaiqer said. "They helped and guided us through every step." 

 Nayla Msaiqer added: "We discovered our strengths and our capabilities. This competition has allowed us to explore the inner media". 

Mohamed Al Neaimi, the Emirates Foundation's Tawteen Programme Director, said: "The Tawteen Programme is all about development and empowerment of young UAE nationals. We provide them with an experience in real work context which exposes their talents to the private sector. Several organizations have already expressed their interest in employing some of these students in the future."  

Yousef Tuqan, Flip Media Chief Executive Officer said the company had been delighted with the success of Tawteen's portal redesign competition and the positive feedback from students. Mr Tuqan hoped this would be the first of many similar partnerships between Flip and Tawteen to develop the talents of young Emiratis..  

He commented: "As a global company that was founded in the UAE, we were honoured to support the digital marketing skills of Emirati students. We are delighted by the feedback from our students and hope this will be the first of many engagements with Tawteen for the development of such talented young men and women."  

Arif Bin Hewail Al Nahdi , the IT Faculty Member at Higher Colleges of Technology, said the Tawteen portal project gave students the chance to practise their skills in web application development and design. "The idea by itself was a strong motive for them to excel and be creative in serving a project that helps a wide range of UAE nationals.".

-Ends-

Notes for editors 
www.tawteenportal.com
The Tawteen Portal, launched in 2008, is an online communications tool facilitating the information flow between Emirates Foundation Tawteen Programme and its end beneficiaries and the four pillars - private sector, government, civil society and academia. It provides Emirati youth a virtual resource centre for Tawteen projects, career development and educational information. It also allows them to register for Tawteen initiatives such as career mentoring, leadership camps and taster days. 

Emirates Foundation Tawteen Programme - www.uaetawteen.com
The Tawteen Programme was launched in February 2007 as an initiative of the Emirates Foundation. It works with a number of private sector and educational partners to help young Emiratis develop the relevant skills and mindset for future employment in the private sector. 

Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy - www.emiratesfoundation.ae
The Emirates Foundation is one of the UAE's foremost philanthropic organisations. It offers financial and technical support to projects that enrich the lives of people in the Emirates, working particularly in the areas of youth development, knowledge creation and society and culture.

The Foundation facilitates links between commercial businesses and the public sector to devise new projects and strengthen existing nonprofit initiatives throughout the country.  Its funding comes from programme-rated contributions and a capital reserve supported by the Abu Dhabi government and private companies.

Launched on April 12, 2005, by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, its board of directors is chaired by HH Sheikh ‫Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Further information can be found at www.emiratesfoundation.ae

For further information please contact:
Awatef Mohamed
Tawteen
Email: Awatef.mohamed@uaetawteen.com

© Press Release 2010