The British Council and HSBC Bank Middle East celebrated the winners of their annual Taqaddam life skills programme last week (Thursday) at the Meydan Hotel in Dubai.
 
Now in its third year, the programme attracted its highest level of participation to date, with registrations from 380 students, an increase of 39 per cent compared to last year, representing 16 different schools.
 
Developed using content created by the Goodall Foundation, the thirteen-week Taqaddam programme provides 15-16 year olds a wide set of enduring personal and professional strengths and skills increasingly required in today’s rapidly changing work environment.
 
According to a recent report by the British Council of more than 500 business leaders in the UAE, local job seekers must have skills at the highest level in order to compete with the best talent from across the world. They must embrace STEM skills - science, technology, engineering and math - and gain fluency in English.
 
With the UAE Government acknowledging the importance of youth development and participation in achieving Vision 2021, the British Council says there is an increasing appetite from schools in developing resilient young people that can enter the workforce with confidence.
 
All Taqaddam activities are planned to provide young people with a greater understanding of life skills and to communicate and demonstrate these skills to others, including employers in the future. In their final task, students demonstrate their learning by presenting a solution to a global or social challenge affecting their community.
 
According to the judging panel, represented by Mo Fadallah, Founder & CEO of Baby Arabia; Dana Kamali, Senior Manager - Corporate Sustainability MENAT at HSBC and Paul Maloney, Senior Communications Manager MENA at the British Council, this year’s Taqaddam students showed strong innovation and creativity. The winning student idea was from Winchester Metropole School who aim to give your plastic a purpose with ‘The Big Bottle Bank’. The team took part in the Jebel Ali Sanctuary Marine Beach Cleanup where they were inspired to launch a school-wide project to recycle plastic bottles to produce clothes.
 
Other innovative project ideas from the younger Taqaddam students include Blind Currency, adding Braille to bank notes for the visually impaired, producing energy from farm waste and an app that detects the onset of a heart attack via a Bluetooth device.
 
“Developing soft skills isn’t easy nor quick but those who are prepared to be diligent will be better placed to succeed, now and in the future. We would like to congratulate all graduates of this year’s Taqaddam programme. I’m confident that each of you will be a great asset to your schools, communities and future employers,” said Sabrin Rahman, Regional Head of Corporate Sustainability, MENAT at HSBC
 
Gavin Anderson, British Council Country Director UAE, said: “Life Skills programmes like Taqaddam help young people acquire the necessary skills and confidence to navigate and lead what will be a fast-changing and unknown workplace in the future. Taqaddam has gone from strength to strength across the region, with more schools and students participating each year. We look forward to welcoming more teachers and students in the coming years.”
 
Taqaddam, which means “moving forward” in Arabic, is being delivered across seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The programme combines online learning and resources, with face-to-face teaching, culminating in a ‘Make It Happen!’ workshop where students showcase their ideas to solve for tomorrow’s challenges using learning from the programme.

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About Taqaddam
Taqaddam means ‘Move Forward’ in Arabic and is an innovative youth-development programme that is delivered across seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It has been developed in partnership with HSBC Bank Middle East Limited and the British Council, with content developed by the Goodall Foundation. The programme is designed to equip young people with a wide set of enduring personal and professional strengths and skills that will enable them to lead successful and fulfilling lives. Taught over seven weeks, Taqaddam starts by a face to face workshop with young people to cover the skills required to be a team player, creative innovator and organized planner. Following the workshops young people have access to Taqaddam online platform where they will develop their character strengths through undergoing missions and skills challenges.
For more information on Taqaddam visit https://taqaddam.britishcouncil.or/
 
About HSBC
For HSBC, sustainability is core to our everyday business. It allows us to support individuals and organisations in achieving their goals by contributing to socio-economic development and environmental protection. Investing in the community, particularly through education, is an important element of HSBC’s sustainability strategy and we place great emphasis on employee volunteering. In 2017, HSBC committed US$137 million to community investment and our employees volunteered over 272,000 hours. 
 
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We work with over 100 countries in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Last year we reached over 65 million people directly and 731 million people overall including online, broadcasts and publications. We make a positive contribution to the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust. Founded in 1934 we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive 15 per cent core funding grant from the UK government. www.britishcouncil.org

For more information, contact Mutaz Albadri on +971(0)50 570 6785 or mutaz@mojo-me.com  

© Press Release 2018