SAP trains 43,100 MENA youth to code

More than 43,100 youth across the Middle East and North Africa have been taught coding skills, with demand for digital skills expected to surge in a post-Covid-19 world.

The youth were trained as part of SAP’s Digital Skills for Today initiative, a project initially formulated as an answer to the 2015 migrant crisis that affected the Middle East.

The initiative has since expanded its mandate and now seeks to empower the youth from an early age all the way to employment.

More than 900 bootcamp graduates have gained employment in Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and Yemen, as well in other countries, including Canada and Sweden, through the project.

“Digital Skills for Today directly improves quality of life by providing in-demand skills for the 21st-century job market,” said Batoul Husseini, the director of Government Affairs Middle East North, Corporate Social Responsibility Lead – MENA, SAP. “Furthermore, the initiative has valuable social outcomes, decreasing unemployment rates in marginalised populations, and providing long-term opportunities for digital innovation and entrepreneurship.”

IDC projects the Middle East and Africa IT market to top $83bn in 2020. In the Middle East, coding is taking on increased prominence in the job market, with initiatives such as UAE-led one million Arab coders initiative that seeks to foster coding-related jobs.

“We aim to reveal the many potential coding heroes that only lack the opportunity to improve their lives and build their own future. Our hands-on learning material and training session allow quick insertion into the workforce, thus shaping an entire generation of tech-savvy professionals,” said Husseini.