Jordan Times
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Junior Professionals Programme launched
6 local IT students placed in British companies for 6 months
By Jumana Bississo
AMMAN — Monday morning marked the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology's (MoICT) launch of the Junior Professionals Programme (JPP).
The programme, one of four tracks under the JPP initiative, is slated to send off its first batch of six Jordanian university students on March 15 to train for a six-month period in two different IT companies in the UK.
The JPP aims to “provide the students with a unique training opportunity to sharpen their skills, enhance employment opportunities... and supply the local IT market with highly qualified young Jordanians,” according to an MoICT statement.
The project will “supply the sector with young, talented and highly qualified IT professionals, which in turn supports the national policy in this field and the private sector by bridging the gap between universities [graduates] and market employment requirements in this rapidly evolving field,” ICT Minister Fawaz Zu'bi explained.
“We want to position Jordan in a way that allows companies [around the world] to see the value in our push for growth in development,” he added.
The initiative — funded by the British embassy and managed by the British Council — initially began as a concept more than two-and-a-half years ago and last year a small pilot project was tested.
“Our informal test programme placed three Yarmouk University students at MBRM in the UK — it was extremely successful, and the companies wanted to hire the students full-time after the training period ended,” said MoICT Education and Training Advisor Nabeel Al Fayoumi.
“Unfortunately, the students had to return to Jordan to complete their studies,” he added with a laugh,” but were fortunate to find jobs with established companies in the country.
After the success of the pilot programme, the MoICT focused on developing and launching the real-deal, placing strict criteria on soon-to-be graduating applicants.
“The students must be studying in IT-related fields, training should be part of their university requirements in order to graduate, they must have excellent English language skills, academic distinction and be socially active,” explained Fayoumi.
The six students were hand-picked out of 30 applicants by a joint committee from the MoICT and the British Council.
“These are the best students,” said Fayoumi, “and we hope we live up to that standard.”
Two UK-based, small- to medium-sized IT companies in the outskirts of London were contacted to train the six students — four of which will be working at “BiblioTech” and the other two at “4Js.”
“Air travel and accommodation will be covered by the British embassy and a monthly subsistence fee of £400 will be paid to each student by the companies,” said Project Manager at the British Council Amanda Lane.
The ministry has been involved in developing a number of other projects under the JPP theme, including the training of more than 50,000 children and 1,000 professionals in IT at the Microsoft Academy — part of the strategic partnership agreement between Microsoft and the government — explained MoICT Secretary General Nadia Al Saeed.
“We have very good partnerships with donors, embassies, and this is starting to change culture... this is the purpose of what we are doing,” added Zu'bi.
The MoICT has secured funds for the next batch of students to take part in the exchange in the coming academic year.
“We hope such programmes will move Jordan into the next level... and that this national programme will be a model for others to replicate,” Zu'bi told journalists.