Deputizing for Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Majd Shweikeh has announced the successful conclusion of Refugee Code Week 2017. Throughout the week, more than 15,000 Syrian refugees and Jordanian youth learned coding skills, preparing them to enter the global workforce and drive the digital economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HYPERLINK “http:\/\/refugeecodeweek.org\/” Refugee Code Week 2017 built on the strong success of last year\u2019s edition, training 5,000 more Middle Eastern youth and refugees than in 2016. The program integrates coding into educational curricula, referring promising participants to the ReBootKamp in Jordan for job placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the world is currently facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 65 million people having been forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only 50 percent of all refugee children worldwide have access to education. Jordan, which hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees alone, is a leader in refugee education initiatives, with 79 percent of Syrian school-aged refugee children in Jordan enrolled in schools, according to UNHCR figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education can help reduce the region\u2019s 30 percent youth unemployment rate, which the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development describes as the world\u2019s highest. It can also help youth secure positions among the 40 million high-skilled workers that McKinsey says are needed by 2020. Labor market integration of refugees could increase GDP by 1 percent by 2020, the International Monetary Fund adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt takes a village to raise a child. When I visit the refugee camps, communities are striving to start owning and living their dreams. By bringing together the public, private, and academic sectors, Refugee Code Week enables refugee camps to become education and innovation hubs for the digital workforce,\u201d said Gergi Abboud, Managing Director, SAP Gulf, North Africa, Levant, and Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Refugee Code Week 2017 was led by its founding partners \u2013 global digital transformation enabler SAP, UNHCR, and Galway Education Center \u2013 along with numerous partners across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRebuilding communities is more than the physical infrastructure \u2013 it\u2019s equally about providing youth and refugees with the peace of mind that they can overcome their physical situation through education. By empowering youth and refugees with coding, Refugee Code Week can restore people\u2019s dignity and help them to live more meaningful daily lives, and for refugees, give them the tools to help rebuild and stabilize their country when the conditions are in place for them to return,\u201d said Stefano Severe, Representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its 2017 edition, Refugee Code Week expanded its program, encompassing free coding workshops in UNHCR camps, community centers, and universities in locations with high refugee populations, including Egypt, France, Greece, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Sweden, and Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On his part, Hugh Bosely, Founder and Executive Director, ReBoot Kamp, said, \u201cRefugees have the experience, creativity, and grit to enter the digital workforce \u2013 but were often cut short in their ambitions. Coding is the digital language of the future. We\u2019re dedicated to working with Refugee Code Week partners to enable refugees and youth to have the educational foundation to become world-class software engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Refugee Code Week included Train-the-Trainer sessions, with each educator aiming to instruct at least 10 students in coding coursework. Younger 8-11 and 12-17 age groups learned coding basics on Scratch, while the 18-24 age group gained an introduction to Web Programming to make a mobile-friendly website and SAP BusinessOne business management software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alongside Refugee Code Week, ReBoot Kamp has enabled 50 promising Jordanians and refugees in 16-week boot camps, while the Re:coded humanitarian initiative educates, inspires, and equips refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supporting Jordanian youth in developing their innovation skills, SAP also announced that the German Jordanian University in Amman has has opened an SAP Next-Gen Lab on its campus, under the German Jordanian University Innovation Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of the SAP Next-Gen Program, German Jordanian University joins a global network of more than 3,300 educational institutions in 111 countries that are collaborating with the public, private, and academic innovation ecosystem to drive innovation, and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students can build skills, help to disrupt innovation, and re-imagine the future of industries with the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More information on Refugee Code Week is available at http:\/\/refugeecodeweek.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deputizing for Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Majd Shweikeh has announced the successful conclusion of Refugee Code Week 2017. Throughout the week, more than 15,000 Syrian refugees and Jordanian youth learned coding skills, preparing them to enter the global workforce and drive the digital economy. HYPERLINK “http:\/\/refugeecodeweek.org\/” Refugee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_pr_autopilot_social_copy":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":28,"_extra_hide_author_box":"1","_extra_featured_post":"","_partner_post_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n