Etisal has organised a human resources workshop for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), under the title "Talent Development and HR Forum", which saw the participation of more than 80 companies. It is the first event by Etisal in 2020. Speakers highlighted the most prominent trends in the field of training and improving employees' efficiency. Sherif Amer, HR expert, stressed the importance of having an outlook for the future in the field of training and hiring during the technological revolution. According to Gartner – a global research and advisory firm providing information, advice, and tools for IT – finance, HR, customer service and support, communications, applications of artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies such as virtual personal assistant and chatbots programmes are expanding rapidly in the business sector. Gartner expects these technologies to reduce approximately 69% of the daily workload of managers by 2024. It added that applications that focus on innovation and artificial intelligence are responsible for improving the team's experience, developing their skills, and enhancing organisational efficiency in terms of the responsible use of artificial intelligence. Nearly 75% of senior recruitment officials said that lack of talents will have a major impact on institutions. During the workshop, Hossam Osman, Adviser to the Minister of Communications and Vice President of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), reviewed the achievements made in the Next Technology Leaders initiative, especially in light of the scarcity of human resources trained at the highest professional level. Osman said that universities in Egypt cannot keep up with the technological developments, and this is why the role of the initiative is important. He added that the initiative provides a high-quality educational system through self-learning platform Massive Open Online Courses, and that subjects are based on cooperative efforts between prominent universities, and leading companies. The platform includes the best training courses by the most prominent universities in the world, including Harvard and MIT. The initiative includes more than 42 training courses, including the specialties of Blockchain, e-marketing, cyber security, and others.
