Google announced today, Wednesday, the funding of a $10 million initiative over 3 years in Palestine, targeting Palestinian application developers, graduates and entrepreneurs in the technology field, to help them enhance their digital skills and create job opportunities.
The announcement came from Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet, which owns Google, during a meeting with Palestinian entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Axes of cooperation
Cooperation will be through Google's work with partners from both the private and public sectors, and the giant company will also cooperate with non-profit organizations to help thousands of Palestinians develop basic skills needed by the technology sector, and to facilitate access to job opportunities locally or in the Middle East and North Africa.
The new initiative is part of Google's efforts to develop digital skills around the world known as "Skills from Google," the company's online digital courses that have helped more than one million people and businesses in the region.
The new initiative is based on 4 main axes:
Develop advanced digital skills
This will be done through a program aimed at developing cloud and artificial intelligence applications.
A training course will be offered in Arabic with the ability to attend in person or online, and the course will be delivered by specialists in Palestine.
Training and building expertise in non-technical fields
This is through Google's cooperation with non-governmental organizations, local and international, to train Palestinians in the non-technical skills required to develop self-employment or to apply for a job in any company.
Provide access to job opportunities
Google will organize events, in cooperation with a number of partners, with the aim of connecting job seekers with various companies.
Connecting Palestinians to Funding Sources
Finally, by linking Palestinian participants to financing opportunities, providing grants that will connect them to business incubators, and providing in-kind contributions, such as free credit from Google Cloud and Google Play.