OMAN USES TECH SKILLS TO BOOST YOUTH JOBS

▶ The Ideathon for Omani Youths is part of a wider government initiative

Oman is going ahead with a plan to promote entrepreneurship in the digital world among its youth, with 100 of the best ideas presented so far chosen yesterday for further development.

The Ideathon for Oman Youths is part of a government effort to boost employment of Omanis, the National Youth Programme for Skills Development launched by Sultan Qaboos.

Six hundred participants were chosen to advance to the next stage of the race on Thursday.

They were picked out of about 700 who completed courses through the Udacity global online learning platform to earn a Nanodegree, which is a basic qualification for entry-level jobs in areas such as data management, software development and digital marketing.

Dr Ali Al Lawati, head of the programme and adviser for studies and research at the Diwan of the Royal Court, said 74 per cent of the participants received their Nanodegree.

The ideathon gathered more than 100 international and Omani experts who served as mentors and judges and delivered workshops to support the 600 Omani youth framing their tech business ideas and preparing them to pitch their ideas in front of 18 experts.

Criteria included creativity, scale-ability, impact, profitability and pitching skills.

The next phase of the National Youth Programme for Skills Development includes three modules, where the 100 particpants transfer their ideas into businesses, services or products.

“There will be another session on the business model,” Dr Al Lawati said.

“The session will discuss the project mechanism and how to create added value either in a service or in a product.”

The event held yesterday also focused on project ideas that could become commercially viable or socially useful.

A World Economic Forum report on the future of employment and skills needed in the Mena region said one in every five jobs in the Arab world would require digital skills by 2020.

The report, which ranked Oman 62nd globally in competitiveness, said Arab nations needed to foster entrepreneurial freedom to provide youth with more chances and prepare the region for the technological transformations ahead.

The programme is one of the government’s strategies to tackle unemployment among Omanis, with nearly 60,000 mostly graduates, looking for work, recent figures from the Ministry of Manpower show.

Six hundred participants were chosen to advance to the next stage of the race on Thursday