DUBAI — The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education (AGFE) announced a partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to provide access to the Al Ghurair Young Thinkers Program (YTP) to UNHCR’s persons of concern in the UAE with the objective to help them gain skills that will guide them on their paths to employment and improved livelihoods.

YTP is a bespoke bilingual and digital platform designed to support Emirati and Arab youth with increased career awareness, soft skills development through online courses, and advising to help them make well informed education and career-related decisions. The platform is currently benefiting more than 20,000 users across the Arab region, with the majority being from the UAE.

Through the program, AGFE is offering a series of online webinars that will both assist and train the UNHCR team to promote YTP, as well as offer training of trainers to youth persons of concern who will be promoting the platform among members of their communities and supporting them through their use of the program. These training sessions will focus on the design, objectives, and benefits of the program in order to effectively promote the digital platform.

AGFE will also be conducting skills building workshops for UNHCR persons of concern, focusing on soft skills such as emotional intelligence, presentation skills and public speaking — all critical for success in various education and workplace settings. In addition to building soft skills, the workshops also support the UNHCR persons of concern with having a better understanding of the careers of the future, and accessing the resources and advising services that will support them with their education and career decisions and paths.

Persons of concern to UNHCR include refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), asylum seekers, stateless people and returnees which UNHCR has helped millions of them rebuild their lives by providing life-saving assistance such as shelter, food, water and other fundamental services.

In this regard Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar, CEO of AGFE, said: “We are delighted for this new collaboration with the UNHCR, especially during these challenging times. This partnership is another step to strengthen our longstanding relationship with the UNHCR both inside and outside the UAE. This partnership confirms our common goals to serve, support and empower vulnerable youth and provide them with the necessary skills for their development to attain elevated livelihoods.”

“We are proud of our strategic partnership with the Al Ghurair Foundation for Education and this collaboration, that comes to reaffirms their commitment towards helping the young generation people in need, especially in this critical time with the COVID pandemic and it’s economic impact, we hope this program will benefit the Arab youth — in particular youth coming from war torn countries and of concern to UNHCR- towards enhancing their education and career paths,”, said Nadia Jbour, head of UNHCR office in the UAE. — SG