Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with graduates of the "Our Future is Digital" initiative, to review the initiative's impact on their career paths. The meeting, which took place at the ministry's headquarters in Cairo's Smart Village, dealt with the impact of the initiative on their career path. It also looked at the participants' ability to access independent work opportunities on global freelance work platforms. Also present at the meeting, in which they participated via video technology, were other groups at the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in the Smart Village, as well as the various head offices of the Egyptian Digital Creativity Centers in Mansoura, Menoufiya, Sohag, Minya and Qena. About 1,000 independent professionals who graduated from the initiative also took part via video conference technology. The initiative was launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, through the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). It aims to provide applied training on the technological skills most in demand in the global market. It also aims to provide the professional skills for digital work, in partnership with Udacity and major global business platforms, such as Freelancer.com platform and Up Work. The initiative looks to provide youth with the skills for the free work market, and to be able to work remotely. It aims to train 100,000 Egyptian youth in specialisations with increasing demand in the free labour market. So far, 31,000 young people have graduated from 27 governorates and more than 50 public and private universities. About 9,000 young people have joined the world's largest freelance work sites. The success stories of several graduates of the initiative were also reviewed, including students and university graduates, who were able to benefit in acquiring applied skills in technology and self-employment. These helped them to compete for digital work opportunities available around the world, and achieve a monthly income of more than $2,000. A number of young people said that the initiative helped them change their career paths and take up technology-based jobs, even though they are graduates of different colleges. A self-employed entrepreneur suggested launching a digital platform that brings together the initiative's graduates and independent professionals with experts in this field. Talaat praised the proposal, and announced his ministry's readiness to launch a competition through Egypt's creativity centres. In these, the contestants would compete to create a platform that would serve as a digital club through which entrepreneurs of self-employment collaborate and exchange experiences. It is worth noting that the initiative includes three levels of applied technological training schemes in e-marketing, website development software, and data science and analysis, as well as professional training in the field of free digital work. Submission for the initiative is available on an ongoing basis through egFWD.com, and new batches are enrolled in the initiative monthly.
