Human capital is the greatest competitive advantage of Egypt in all development areas. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a knowledge-intensive field that is rapidly changing, where young people represent the main component and powerful force in this important and vital industry. Egypt realized, decades ago, the need and importance of developing creative and innovative young calibers to lead this industry and make a qualitative leap.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is aware that building minds and developing human capacities is one of the most significant strategic planks, a key pillar to achieve development, and an essential component for the advancement of ICT. In this context, MCIT has launched several initiatives, scholarships and programs, aiming at providing training opportunities for young people to qualify them for the local and international labor markets. This contributes to building a skill base in ICT fields and creating a technology-based digital society.
MCIT is keen to ensure the efficiency and quality of the training content, to provide the trainees with applied experience and outstanding training in the latest technological methods, and to select the fields required in the labor market and the emerging technologies, such as financial technology (FinTech), digital arts, data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other fields that are in high demand.
MCIT is embarking on implementing a training strategy according to a hierarchal approach, with a base that entails programs for a large number of trainees to reach young people at different levels of education and specializations. This training system is implemented through various training arms affiliated with MCIT, including the Information Technology Institute (ITI), the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), the National Telecommunication Institute (NTI), the Software Engineering Competence Center (SECC), and the E-Learning Competence Center (ELCC).
Since its inception, over the past 28 years, ITI has been able to provide Egypt with technical competent calibers in the local, regional and international labor markets. In addition, the freelance jobs platforms have helped many of ITI graduates to work remotely for the major global companies in Europe and the USA. Today, there is an increasing demand by these companies for ITI graduates due to their distinguished level of education and training.
ITI is keen to provide a matrix of valuable and varied scholarships and training programs (32 training programs), related to all technology specializations, such as the professional training programs that last for nine months, the intensive training for graduates, the summer training camps for university students, the professional training programs on AI skills, Training of Trainers (ToT) programs as Tech Ambassadors, and many other programs and scholarships that enable any creative or innovative person to contribute to the shaping of the future.
ITI also offers the possibility to self-learning and training through “Mahara-Tech”, an educational platform with technical content, rich in technological tracks, provided by ITI in partnership with IT experts and content companies. Through this platform, one can learn about different labor markets, understand the map of future careers in technology and learn the required skills to join such careers.
ITI seeks to expand nationwide by increasing its branches in governorates, and its centers within Creativa Innovation Hubs, in cooperation with universities. This aims at reaching the largest number of trainees and discovering talented young people to teach them the languages of the digital era and support innovation among them in cooperation with major local and global companies. ITI is also working on developing distinguished calibers of trainers in the ICT field (Tech Ambassadors) and on creating a base of certified trainers to meet ITI geographical expansion.
ITI is also entering into many partnership agreements and cooperation protocols with high-ranking international IT entities (universities, global companies, research institutions and institutes) to transfer new technologies; take advantage of global experiences; provide young trainees with global skills through training; find job opportunities in these companies; and provide young people with expertise in specializations with rapid demand. This is carried out in cooperation with global companies, such as IBM, Microsoft Coursera, Red Hat, Fortinet Network, Pal Alto, Dell, Apple, and Google.
As a result of the efforts exerted by ITI in this regard, ITI was certified as the first Apple training center in Africa. Its outstanding endeavors include the qualification of hundreds of programmers in the Egyptian market and the preparation of more than 500 specialists in Apple IOS technologies to have a base of technical calibers that can be built upon to create many expert trainers in this field.
ITI also endeavors to develop and adopt several programs and specializations that serve the most in-demand skills according to the global market trends, which ITI always pays attention to. In this context, ITI has launched an initiative in AI in partnership with the French School of Engineering and Computer Science (EPITA) to design and implement a joint training program that lasts for nine months and includes 420 trainees.
In the field of open-source software and technologies, an agreement was concluded with RED HAT, a company specialized in data analysis, software development and system testing, where 60 trainees from ITI were able to obtain the company’s certificate in a short time. This is in addition to making the company’s educational content available on the ITI electronic platform.
ITI also plays an important role in training and qualifying calibers in the field of information security to face the threat of cyber attacks and breaches of information systems and databases. In this framework, ITI concluded an agreement with Fortinet, a company specialized in information security, which made its training content available on the ITI educational platform. This is considered a building block for the Information Security Academy, affiliated with ITI, and its objectives to train trainees and specialists in the fields of information security, infrastructure, digital evidence, and malicious software, thus contributing to upgrading the security level of infrastructure and keeping pace with digital transformation.
Now, the world in moving towards the application of open-job market and freelance jobs platforms, away from the traditional labor market. This places a great responsibility on ITI towards preparing a promising generation with academic and practical experiences and qualifying this generation to get unconventional job opportunities. In this regard, ITI provides freelance job opportunities through its platform freelancingzones.com for training in remote freelance jobs. This is in addition to establishing technology labs and freelancing zones that enable trainees to showcase their innovations in all fields. ITI also provides labs for the AI field and studios and halls for e-learning.
ITI was able to provide 90% freelance jobs for trainees prior to graduation and as a result of these efforts, young people from ITI were able to earn more than US 100,000 dollars as revenue from the freelance job opportunities and to complete around 700 freelance projects in several technological specializations in 30 countries around the world.
This year, ITI celebrated the graduation of a new patch of young trainees under the title “Egyptian Young Calibers Qualified for Future Professions”, which reflects the trend towards keeping pace with technological and economic changes and the introduction of new scholarships, initiatives and programs, focusing on emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data analysis, AI, information security, geographic information systems, software development and testing, blockchain, FinTech, digital content production, software, cloud computing, and many other vital fields.
During the graduation ceremony, samples of the work of trainees from the academies affiliated with ITI have been presented, including Digital Arts and Design Academy and the Game Development Academy. In addition, the contributions of ITI graduates to the artworks presented in Egyptian and global media have been showcased. This is in addition to the distinguished works carried out by the young people of the Digital Arts and Design Academy and the 3D-film departments affiliated with ITI, which participated in the Egyptian drama.
Now, due to the rapid changes in information technology, ITI is always keen to monitor the implications and uses of technology in different fields and works on developing its programs and training scholarships to keep pace with the requirements and trends of the global market and the ongoing change in the required skill matrix.
