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ticho [soylentnews.org] writes:

Spearheaded by German software company SAP, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and Ireland's Galway Education Centre, the programme aims to tackle the unemployment that has accompanied the refugee crisis in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt by equipping participants with the type of technical know-how that is in increasingly high demand by employers.

Information and communications technology (ICT) spending in the Middle East and Africa will reach $260bn this year, according to the American market research firm IDC, while a recent survey of MENA educators by Microsoft found that just 32 percent include digital literacy as part of their curricula.

"The region has an acute lack of skills in the ICT area, yet there is growth in the market," Batoul Husseini, the corporate social responsibility manager for SAP MENA, tells Al Jazeera. "Bridging this skills gap is a great opportunity for those countries most affected by the refugee crisis."

Read more at aljazeera.com [aljazeera.com]

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