Featured in Emirates Business 24-7: English Newspaper

Dubai: Arab nations are laying the foundation for an even more dynamic and diversified economy in the future by getting their school and university students involved in entrepreneurial workshops that open the gates of the business world for them at an early age.

"Catch them young" seems to be the motto in the region, as 12 Arab nations, including the UAE, have partnered with Injaz, a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, a global non-profit business education organisation, to hold workshops in schools and colleges across the region.

Junior Achievement (JA) reaches 9.3 million students through its network of 123 offices worldwide and its regional arm Injaz Al Arab, which has been in the region since 1999, targets 11-22 year-old students in all the 12 countries.

Talking about the purposes and goals of this programme, Sulaf Al Zu'bi, CEO, Injaz-UAE, told Emirates Business: "The purpose of these workshops is to introduce students to the concept of self-employment, and to give them the opportunity to meet an entrepreneur and supporting organisations. This is meant to expand their horizons and direct their thinking towards the future in a fun way.

"Our goals are to increase the skills of the youth and their participation in the economy and encourage them to take the initiatives and become entrepreneurs.

"In the UAE, the Ministry of Education has allowed Injaz-UAE an opportunity to reach 40 government schools countrywide for the next five-years."

Injaz-UAE has also roped in the private sector in this initiative and recently hosted a one-day entrepreneurial workshop for students at the Mohammed bin Rashid School for Boys, in partnership with Boeing. This will be followed by a series of one-day workshops not just in this school but in eight other government schools across the UAE.

Al Zu'bi said: "By partnering with the private sector, we enable the youth to plan their career by linking them to successful role models from the private sector through corporate volunteers.

"For an hour a week, for six to 15 weeks, volunteers are trained to teach selected JA programmes, which are designed to mentor students in success skills, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, thus narrowing the gap between students and the business.

"By using interactive training methods, they share their knowhow to prepare students to enter the world of work and succeed.

"In a way, it gives corporations an opportunity to shape their future workforce."

Talking about the reason why they are targeting schoolchildren in the UAE, Al Zu'bi said: "Even though we do work with university students we prefer to work with schoolchildren as we believe in catching them young. This is because a young child's mind is more receptive and is like a blank canvas to work with whereas university students more or less have an idea of what they want to do. So if we introduce the idea of entrepreneurship at a young age then we are in a way helping them shape their future by showing them what possibilities it holds and opening a whole new world for them."

Even though the programme is open to all, Injaz-UAE mostly works with boys and girls in 13 government schools across the UAE and 80 to 90 per cent of their participants are UAE nationals.

Al Zu'bi said: "Just like in other countries, we cover their own natives, so in the same way here also we try to focus mainly on the UAE nationals as they need it in order to help the nation grow. These children will one day set up businesses that will take the country's economy even further."

They go about this by holding a one-day entrepreneurial workshop called the Junior Achievement Entrepreneurship MasterClass for students at their school.

This Entrepreneurship MasterClass challenges students to think about their own future and get them to think of starting a business as a career option.

The MasterClass aims to help students identify the key entrepreneurial attitudes and skills required to start their own businesses. In addition, they help students understand the main issues and practicalities of starting their own businesses like who to approach concerning financial matters and who to approach for help and advice.

The Entrepreneurship MasterClass also includes presentations from organisations that assist business start-ups, and information is provided on how to go forward if students want to look at setting up their own businesses in the future.

In addition to this, the students are also introduced to real-life business leaders and entrepreneurs who share their vision, experiences and achievements.

Students gain an understanding from experts of what is involved in getting there, setting up their own business, knowledge of the technical process of setting up a business from the experience of others who have become today's leaders and entrepreneurs, an understanding of the need of related experiences before becoming tomorrow's entrepreneurs and inspiration, enthusiasm and vision.

After the students have been through the MasterClass, Injaz takes them to the next level where they have a detailed follow up in the form of a Company Programme that is a series of workshops where a classroom turns into an actual company. Students come up with the idea, study its feasibility, sell stocks to raise capital, divide into management teams, produce a business plan, produce and sell a product or service and then liquidate the company. Students are encouraged to use innovative thinking to learn business skills that support positive attitudes as they explore and enhance their entrepreneurial career aspirations. It ends with a Company Course Competition every year.

Al Zu'bi said: "Many a time, when the students come to us they don't seem too interested, but once they attend one of the workshops they become hooked. This is because we give them a simulation case study to work on, set up the business and manage it.

"By the end of it they are so charged up that when we go back to the next semester for the follow-up programme called Company Programme, where we explain them the steps in detail of how once you have an idea you get finance for it, solve the problems related to that business, think of logos etc, they are just raring to go.

"This year, in our MasterClass we simulated the start-up of an advertising agency tasked with creating a 'Save the Planet' communications campaign, which was conducted by volunteers from Boeing. The response of the children was just amazing."

Dana Salloum, Associate Director, Strategy and Business Development Boeing International Corporation, told Emirates Business about how they became involved with Injaz.

"A few years ago, Boeing was approached by Injaz, and they introduced us to the organisation and the programmes they offered. Boeing already has a Global Corporate Citizenship fund to support the communities we operate in and Boeing Middle East has been allocated a portion of that fund to invest in the region. Education is a key focus for the UAE and therefore we have chosen to support organisations like Injaz that are in line with the initiatives set by the UAE Ministry of Education. The programmes offered by Injaz are needed, have an impact and are popular with the students. Apart from the recent MasterClass programme that we sponsored in eight governmental schools throughout the UAE, we have also supported Injaz in the Palestinian Territories, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt and Oman.

"At Boeing we encourage all our employees to volunteer and support the community as much as possible and Injaz gave us the opportunity to do so with the MasterClass. Boeing employees from various departments shared their time and experience during the launch of Injaz's MasterClass in the UAE. Everyone really enjoyed spending time with the students at Mohammed bin Rashid School for Boys. It was an excellent learning experience for everyone."

Talking about the benefits for the students Al Zu'bi said: "Well, apart from broadening their horizons, a Junior Achievement survey shows in the older programmes that have been around in other parts of the world since 1919, 20 per cent of the Company Programme participants go on to open their own businesses as opposed to the global average of two per cent for most nations which is never more than four per cent, even for developed countries.

"Also, 30 per cent of female graduates who have done the programme end up in the upper management. In the GCC, we have not been able to measure the impact as we are just a few years old here. Our oldest programme is in Jordan, as we started there in 1999. Out there we offer university level programmes and we will be tracking their progress like we do globally. But we are confident of very good track records here in the future as in this region the children are more keen to do business than anything else. That's the mindset here, but no one is teaching them how to fulfill that ambition and goal. So we are now adding structure to the mindset that is already there. And we are sure of success as we teach them in a fun, interactive manner through practical experience and not through books."

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