First phase of Oxy’s .nxt programme kicks off

The first phase of the ‘.nxt, the Oxy Programme for Entrepreneurial Development in Frontier Technology, kicks off this week. The programme, which aims at building the Sultanate’s technical talent base and innovation capacity, will continue until July 2021. The programme is exclusively sponsored by Occidental Oman.

About 1200 participants are enrolled in this phase, 1,000 of which are recent technical graduates, and 200 are higher education technical students.

The first phase will include online training that runs from October to December 2020, during which participants are expected to complete all the technical skills materials. By the end of this stage, participants will

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be evaluated, and a smaller pool will be selected to move to the next stage.

In Phase One, participants will be concentrating on the 12 following subjects: data science & business intelligence, artificial intelligence & machine learning, Big Data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, Devops, software development, Agile and Scrum, IT services & architecture, project management, quality management and digital marketing.

The Oxy Programme for Entrepreneurial Development in Frontier Technology aims to create new technology-based businesses and improving employment opportunities in order to grow the economy and address strategic challenges, and to attract and nurture innovative projects nationally and internationally that will benefit the Sultanate.

The .nxt programme has been designed, developed and implemented by the Science, technology and Innovation Division (STID) of Etco (International Emerging Technology Company) and it is exclusively sponsored by Occidental Oman Inc.”