Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with representatives of Information Technology Institute (ITI) graduates who are self-employed and receiving training in Creativa Innovation Hubs.
The online meeting, which saw interaction with representatives located in Daqahleya, Menoufiya, Minya, Sohag, Qena, and Aswan, took place during Talaat’s visit to the ITI in Cairo’s Smart Village.
He said that developing young people’s skills in the fields of self-employment and remote work is a strategic training goal pursued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. It aims to empower youth in the free job market via the Internet.
Talaat highlighted his ministry’s keenness to spread Digital Egypt creativity centres in various governorates to develop the digital skills of youth. It is also hoped they will stimulate their innovative and entrepreneurial work, which will positively reflect on the advancement of Egypt’s ICT industry.
The Minister said that self-employment provides opportunities for many young people to acquire skills and work in new specialisations, whilst helping them to avoid being restricted to the field of study.
This is particularly since the ITI and the National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) have many programmes in the fields of modern digital technologies to sharpen and deepen skills.
Young self-employment pioneers reviewed the most important specialisations and training paths that they undertook with the Egypt Digital Creativity Centres in the governorates. These have contributed to developing their skills and gaining great experience in self-employment via the Internet in technological fields.
The training opportunities have also qualified many of them to obtain high evaluations in global freelance platforms. As a result of these, they have had opportunities for non-traditional work in the regional and global markets with a profitable return that starts at an average of no less than $500 a month.
This includes opportunities with companies in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, India, Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia.
In the past year, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has launched several initiatives to build the capacity of young self-employed Egyptians. One of these has been the “Your work from your home” initiative, implemented by the Information Technology Institute.
It includes technical content, self-employment skills content, and a base of experts from industry partners and partnering with freelance platforms.
So far, the number of registered persons on this platform has reached more than 50,000 while the number of those who completed qualified training reached nearly 3,900 trainees.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is working to spread Egypt’s digital centres in several governorates. Through these centres, many programmes are implemented through the ITI, the NTI, and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) within the framework of several axes.
The latter provide professional path consultations, as well as technical and applied training programmes in communications and information technology. These come in addition to: training technology ambassadors from universities; providing services and accredited certificates in cooperation with the private sector; supporting self-employment; supporting creativity and entrepreneurship skills; and creating an environment for applied technology that supports modern technological trends.
The visit, which included ITI Head Heba Saleh, saw a review of the initiatives launched by the Institute during the last year, as well as its governance mechanism and follow-up. The review also looked at the planned numbers, and what has been accomplished so far.
Notable achievements include providing information security training initiatives with the Palo Alto Global Company, as well as AI initiatives with Google and the College of Science, Computer and advanced French technologies.
On the sidelines of the session, Talaat met, via video conference, with the head of the technological skills sector at the Indian Nasscom Corporation. During the meeting, the two sides discussed a proposal to develop a general framework and standards for digital competencies and professions in the field of self-employment.
This aims to support independent professionals, especially in the fields of digital business, and to develop a single language for government workers, the private sector, and independent professionals. This will take place in cooperation with the largest global digital technology institutions that frequently employ independent professionals.
