The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology launched on Wednesday the 'Ashbal Misr Digital Initiative' — a free grant that aims to refine IT skills for outstanding students. The initiative will target students from Grade Seven all the way till Grade 11 in all schools across the country in order to prepare a distinguished generation of young people capable of exploring new horizons in the fields of communications and IT and achieving Egypt's digital vision. This comes in light of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's directives to foster a digital transformation in Egypt. Furthermore, the ministry is implementing the initiative in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The initiative aims to develop the technological skills of 3,000 outstanding students in cooperation with local and international specialised authorities in various technological sciences to cover scientific and educational aspects in addition to implementing activities to develop personal and leadership skills. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat said that the Ashbal Misr Digital Initiative comes within the framework of the ministry's strategy to build digital capabilities, which will be implemented according to a multi-level hierarchical approach. He pointed out that the initiative is integrated with the rest of the initiatives launched by the ministry to provide young people with all IT tools to keep pace with the requirements of the digital age. Students participating in the initiative may begin to enrol in a foundation programme that helps them develop their technological skills by learning the basics and tools of modern technology. They may then enrol in one of the specialised tracks according to their choice. These tracks include various fields such as digital arts, software development, securing networks and information, AI, and robotics. This is in addition to training them in personal and leadership skills such as communication arts, time management, teamwork, leadership and entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. The initiative combines scientific and practical study at the same time, and the training days do not conflict with school studies, or the dates of exams announced in the educational system, and 75% of the training will be available online, with the remaining 25% given in training centres in various governorates in a way that helps them implement the applied projects required of them each year. The Ashbal Misr Digital Initiative will also present prizes for outstanding students at the end of each academic year in addition to granting the successful ones certificates accredited by the communications ministry.
