The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has witnessed the signing of 10 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with tech giants to implement Digital Egypt Cubs Initiative (DECI), which was launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).
DECI aims to prepare a distinguished generation of outstanding school students to be able to cope with future and modern technologies in various IT fields and applications to become active youth and citizens in building a digital society that keep pace with the advancements and future requirements nationally and globally.
The MoUs included cooperation with IT companies, such as Vodafone Egypt, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Huawei, Microsoft, VMware, Dell Technologies, Google, IBM, Valeo, and Cisco.
The MoUs are aimed at cooperating with these global companies in preparing training tracks, providing virtual platforms and laboratories in relevant technological disciplines and awareness, and organizing webinars for DECI students. They are also aimed at providing the opportunity for outstanding students to participate in competitions and field visits to the premises of these companies as well as cooperating in training the trainers responsible for implementing DECI and granting them trainers’ certificates in the relevant disciplines. This is in addition to organizing cultural, educational, and developmental activities for DECI outstanding students.
The MoUs were signed by the Deputy ICT Minister for Infrastructure Raafat Hindy and the Head of Egypt at AWS Azza El-Shinnawy, General Manager at Cisco – Egypt and North and West Central Africa (NWCA) Ayman Elgohary, Dell EMC Egypt General Manager Tarek Heiba, the Manager of Government Affairs and Public Policy - Egypt at Google Maha Afifi, the CEO of Huawei Egypt Jim Liu, the General Manager of IBM Egypt Marwa Abbas, the Country Manager for Egypt at Microsoft Mirna Arif, the General Manager of Valeo Innovation and Technology in EGYPT (VITE) Tamer Aly, the Regional Director for North Africa and Levant (NALE) at VMware Amr Salah, and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Vodafone Egypt Foundation Mohamed Hanna.
The Deputy ICT Minister for Institutional Development Ghada Labib, the Assistant ICT Minister for Strategy and Implementation Sherine El-Guindy and several MCIT officials attended the signing ceremony.
DECI is a program offered free by MCIT to top-performing students, from the first year of preparatory school to the second year of secondary school, for all Egyptian schools in the academic year 2022/2023. The initiative is provided for one to five years according to the age and educational level of each applicant, provided that applicants meet the application requirements and criteria of each academic year.
In this context, the ICT Minister emphasized that DECI is a national initiative that seeks to achieve the state’s strategic goal, namely investing in people. He noted that MCIT launched DECI with investments of $25 million over five years to train 3,000 students each year.
The ICT Minister also explained that DECI is aimed at selecting and preparing a group of outstanding school students to revolutionize the local ICT industry, explore new horizons in this field in line with the requirements of the future, and become qualified to lead the technological process and Digital Egypt projects.
Talaat added that DECI provides opportunities for youngsters to develop their technological skills and discover their creativity at an early age. He indicated that the methodology of implementing the capacity-building strategy of MCIT is based on several pillars. These comprise inclusiveness to cover all segments of society at different ages, diversity of disciplines, keeping pace with the labor market, and using hybrid learning mechanisms by merging traditional with distance learning to deliver the training nationwide.
The ICT Minister pointed out that this cooperation consolidates one of DECI goals, which is to build long-term partnerships with global and local IT companies to upskill students joining DECI. He also explained that one of the main ingredients of success in the ICT sector is the partnership between the public and private sectors in implementing initiatives and projects aimed at advancing the ICT industry.
The ICT Minister thanked all industry partners for what they will provide to enhance students’ capabilities and for their keenness to participate in the initiatives aimed at achieving development and laying the foundations for the digital economy.
DECI follows the curriculum of honing the skills of school students in accordance with the latest global developments in various technological fields. These include software development, digital arts, network and information security, data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and embedded systems. This is in addition to building personal, life and leadership skills as well as implementing scientific, cultural and social activities to build leading Egyptian personalities capable of interacting with future sciences.
The initiative provides an interactive, participatory learning environment that stimulates creativity, excellence and innovation among youngsters by providing scientific and practical training in cooperation with national and global companies and institutions specialized in various technological sciences.
DECI offers partial scholarships from specialized technological universities affiliated to MCIT to the outstanding enrolled students who will complete their academic years of study in DECI. This is in addition to in-kind prizes and certificates accredited by MCIT for outstanding students each year. It also provides opportunities to participate in national and global technology competitions.
For her part, the Advisor to the ICT Minister for Technological Talents Hoda Baraka explained that DECI is a continuation of MCIT endeavors and efforts to prepare a new generation of youngsters practically and unconventionally trained in ICT. She emphasized that what distinguished DECI is that it targets a group that has passion for learning the latest technologies. This group is the nucleus for future youth who will support Digital Egypt projects.
Arif said that Microsoft believes in the capabilities of young people and works to support them by providing them with the twenty-first century’s skills and enhancing innovation and creativity among students. She added that Microsoft offers a series of webinars to raise technology awareness and also provides different ways to learning.
For her part, El-Shinnawy pointed out that what MCIT is providing now proves that Egypt is on the right track and is already gaining ground in globally visible indicators related to the ICT sector.
Hanna said that Vodafone aims to support DECI through its partnership and presence, along with a group of major institutions, to develop digital skills and capabilities as well as to prepare school students for the Egyptian labor market. He added that, through DECI, Vodafone is looking forward to providing training material, whether technical or specific to life and development skills, to the initiative’s students on an educational platform. This is in addition to allocating 100 digital labs developed by Vodafone Foundation in various governorates to become the main training premises for students.
Additionally, certificates accredited by Indiana University and Balanced Education Company for learning English at different levels will be granted to DECI students, Hanna said, adding that Vodafone Foundation will organize cultural, educational, social or developmental activities for outstanding students.
Abbas stated that IBM Egypt is pleased to cooperate again with MCIT in DECI. She added that part of their commitment is to train 30 million people by 2030 to build the skills and experiences needed for new generations to keep pace with modern trends in light of the changes and technological advancements in markets.
In his remarks, Aly said that Valeo Egypt is working to build future technology calibers to complete the journey of 2,500 Egyptian engineers, who create software from Valeo Egypt. He explained that the company will hold a series of awareness seminars on the modern technologies used in the automotive industry, provide consultancy services regarding reviewing the content of the robotics track, and invite top students to visit Valeo Egypt’s premises to explore the practical side of the automotive industry. Aly added that Valeo will also participate as a representative of DECI advisory board.
Liu stated that the signing of the cooperation agreement marks the beginning of a new phase of Huawei’s long-term partnership with MCIT to digitally empower Egyptian youth. Huawei is proud of its participation in DECI, which reflects the company’s keenness to build a system that contributes to upskilling youth, he added. Liu said that Huawei will provide the necessary training for trainers to raise their efficiency and enrich their training experiences.
For his part, Heiba highlighted that this initiative emphasized the importance of empowering youngsters and educating school students in the preparatory and secondary stages to build the digital future and keep pace with the fast-changing era. He added that DECI is also a step toward achieving the state’s strategy for AI and digital economy.
Google trained 500,000 people in digital skills in Egypt last year, said Afifi. By contributing to DECI, Google will work to bridge the gap among the trainees, she added. With the initiative targeting school students in the preparatory and secondary stages, Google will be able to prepare calibers that directly contribute to accelerating the digital transformation in Egypt. This is achieved through their acquired digital experiences and through enriching them with these skills and equipping them to join the labor market.
Elgohary said that Cisco has been participating in DECI, targeting new, conscious generations armed with the latest science and specialized training in networking and cybersecurity. He added that this participation qualifies these generations for new horizons and job opportunities in networking, cyber security and programming, and makes Egypt a favorable offshoring hub in technology. He added that this process contributes to increasing the national income and increasing investments of global companies due to the availability of specialized personnel in all fields.
Salah thanked MCIT for the distinguished initiatives aimed at preparing not only graduates to join the labor market, but also youngsters to support learning mechanisms and encourage them to study technology to keep pace with global advancement and competition.
To learn more about DECI, the terms and conditions of application and admission criteria, kindly click here.
https://deci.gov.eg/
For more details and inquiries, kindly contact 15388, or visit DECI Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/DECI.EGY
