10 centres in UAE, Saudi and Egypt

Dubai, 29 June 2009 - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the technology company HP announced today the opening of 20 additional training centres in Africa and the Middle East to expand HP's youth entrepreneurship and IT education programme.

The new centres, part of the HP Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT programme (GET-IT), will operate in Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The total number of GET-IT centres will now reach 33 in ten countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The GET-IT programme provides training to unemployed youth and graduates between the ages of 16 and 25, and helps potential entrepreneurs acquire IT skills with the aim of becoming better placed to create and run their own businesses. GET-IT courses teach practical IT solutions for daily business challenges in areas such as finance, management, marketing and technology management.

"The UNIDO-HP partnership aims at addressing the high level of unemployment among young people in developing countries by integrating them into the labour market through successful entrepreneurship", said Kandeh K. Yumkella, UNIDO Director-General.

"HP and UNIDO have been working together to provide IT technology and training to promote innovative uses of information and communication technologies to support entrepreneurship, help encourage economic development and create new business opportunities. It is essential to keep expanding this initiative to reach as many communities as possible and to continue assisting countries in Africa and the Middle East in educating their young generation in IT."

John Hoonhout, Managing Director for HP Middle East, added: "HP believes that entrepreneurship is vital for the economy and that young people can play a major role in creating their own businesses and their own jobs. The GET-IT training courses combine entrepreneurship education with practical hands-on experience in using IT to enhance young people's professional skills." 

Through its extensive field office network in Africa and the Middle East, UNIDO identifies non-profit organizations who are eligible to become GET-IT partners and monitors the activities of these partners to ensure the sustainability of the GET-IT programme.

GET-IT is part of HP's social investment strategy aimed at innovating teaching and learning to help young entrepreneurs in achieving success in their future careers. The programme provides IT equipment, a cash donation, training as well as training of trainers for the respective local partner organizations.

HP and its partners have now rolled out the GET-IT programme in nearly 100 centres in 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching out to more than 43,000 people through online and offline training courses. HP and its partners plan to grow GET-IT even further to reach over 500,000 young people by 2010.Those who do not live close to a GET-IT training centre will be able to access  some of the  courses online. HP and its partner MEA-I have created a web portal - www.get-it-city.net - where any young entrepreneur in EMEA can log on for training and advice.

To maximize the impact of their youth entrepreneurship programmes, UNIDO and HP will establish linkages between GET-IT and UNIDO's Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme and the Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Programme. These new linkages will help to increase the scope of the GET-IT programme.

The following institutions are benefiting from the UNIDO - HP partnership in 2009:

  • Nahdet El Mahrousa, Cairo, Egypt

  • The Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement, Cairo, Egypt

  • Business Enterprise Support Tools Foundation, Giza, Egypt

  • General Federation of NGOs and Foundations (GFNF), Cairo, Egypt

  • Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

  • Dubai Women's College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  • Entrepreneur Business Village, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  • Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, Saudi Arabia

  • Institut de Formation Professionnelle (IFP), Algiers, Algeria

  • Institut National Spécialisé de Formation Professionnelle (INSFP), Algiers, Algeria

  • PlaNet Finance, Casablanca, Morocco

  • Youth Agenda Consortium (YAC), Eldoret, Kenya

  • Tears Group Kenya, Nakuru, Kenya

  • ALTAAWON Trust, Nairobi, Kenya

  • Africa Leadership Forum, Ota, Nigeria

  • University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

  • School Leavers Opportunity Training (SLOT), Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

  • Umsobomvu Youth Fund, Port Elizabeth, South Africa 

For more information on the HP GET-IT Programme, please visit www.graduate-training-through-it.net/

-Ends-

About HP
HP, the world's largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

About HP Middle East
HP is the largest technology and solutions provider in the Middle East with 1310 employees and subsidiaries in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Cairo, Ramallah, Qatar, Oman and 2 service Joint Ventures in Kuwait ,Bahrain and Abou Dhabi servicing the GCC, Egypt and the Levant. HP has been present in the Middle East since 1968 and opened its first regional office in 1994. HP Middle East is the market leader for enterprise, small and medium business and consumer technology products and offers a large portfolio of solutions and services in various business domains.

Note to editors: More news from HP, including links to RSS feeds, is available at www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/.

About UNIDO
UNIDO is a specialised agency of the United Nations system that works towards improving the quality of life of the world's poor by helping countries achieve sustainable industrial development. UNIDO views industrial development as a means of creating employment and income to overcome poverty. It helps developing countries and economies in transition to produce goods they can trade on the global market. It also helps provide the tools - training, technology, and investment - to make them competitive. At the same time, it encourages production processes that will neither harm the environment nor place too heavy a burden on a country's limited energy resources. UNIDO has 173 Member States and has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. More information is available at www.unido.org. 

(1) Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007

© 2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

© Press Release 2009