Mindware, a leading value added distributor (VAD) in the Middle East and Africa, has announced the launch of Mindware Academy, an initiative designed to develop young talent and help combat the challenge of IT skills shortage in the Middle East.
Mindware teamed up with the American University of Sharjah (AUS) for a pilot program in December, where a few select students from the University successfully underwent a five week internship. The two institutions are now working towards signing a Memorandum of Agreement with the intention of growing the relationship and deepening the collaboration. As part of the agreement, the University will commit to providing the best potential candidates for the program on an on-going basis.
The pilot program covered the following topics and information:
- Introduction to Cloud, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Cloud vs On-premise
- Security overview, Data Protection, Endpoint Security and Identity & Access Management, Datacentre and Cloud Security, Security Operations and Incident Response
- Data Center overview, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Digital Workspace, Network Management, Server Virtualization fundamentals, Endpoint foundation
- Mindware service offerings and understanding processes from receiving the RFP, preparing the quotation, SoW, pricing and assigning engineers.
The internship not only helped the students enhance their technical knowledge but also helped significantly improve their communication and presentation skills, besides giving them clarity on which courses/ tracks to opt for in the next four years of their university education.
Mindware Academy will start with two programs a year in UAE, with six students attending each program. As the Academy grows from strength to strength, Mindware will look to ramp up the number of programs, as well as expand the concept from UAE to the wider Middle East region, involving more universities.
The initial phase will feature technical skills development, but in time the program will be expanded to include sales, marketing, e-commerce, marketplace and other disciplines. These new areas will be mapped to Mindware’s own requirements for talent, so that once interns finish the programs, top performing students could be presented with a job offer from Mindware.
Mindware Academy is the brainchild of Philippe Jarre, CEO of Mindware, who believes that in a dynamic, ever-evolving tech industry, the minds of tomorrow need to be equipped to take on all its challenges. He advocates that there is no better way than to invest and train students in real world scenarios with practical experience that gives them the tools they need to be able to make a positive impact in the industry.
“We are excited to launch Mindware Academy and provide opportunities for the next generation of talent to learn and grow with our company. We believe this program will be beneficial for both, the interns as well as our organization, and we look forward to seeing the impact it will have. There is a skills gap in the region and this program aims to bridge that gap by providing young talent with the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience,” Jarre concludes.
