More than 10,000 Middle East refugees and youth boosted their digital economy career prospects with coding courses, as part of the inaugural Refugee Code Week held recently in Beirut, Lebanon.

Across Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey – which are among the world’s largest hosts of refugees according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) -- refugees and nationals learned highly-valued website coding and programming skills.

Demonstrating the potential for ICT careers, Middle East and Africa governments are investing $260 billion in IT in 2016, according to research firm IDC. Saudi Arabia, for example, will have an ICT job shortage of 37,700 in 2017, according to a recent Saudi government report.

“The success of Refugee Code Week demonstrates how governments, the private sector, international organizations, and civil society can inspire and develop sustainable Digital Economy education models for youth. UNHCR and our partners are committed to helping the Middle East and Africa youth and refugees develop and launch their digital IT careers, help rebuild countries, and empower women,” said Brad Henderson, Corporate and Foundation Relations Lead at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Refugee Code Week was spearheaded by global technology company SAP, in collaboration with UNHCR and the Galway Education Centre, along with partnerships with over 30 local governments, non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and businesses.

“Across the Middle East and North Africa, there are tens of thousands unfilled technology jobs. Refugee Code Week is providing a lifeline to help young people in refugee camps and beyond to acquire coding skills, empower young adults to consider IT careers, and integrate coding into curriculums for long-term sustainable technology education,” said Gergi Abboud, managing director for the Gulf, North Africa, Levant, and Pakistan at SAP.

Supporting women in ICT, nearly half – 43 per cent – of Refugee Code Week participants were female.

SAP partnered with the ReBootKamp in Jordan for the first immersive code boot camp in the Arab World focused on empowering refugees. Refugee Code Week’s most promising students were given the opportunity to join the boot camp in Jordan to sharpen their Web programming or SAP Business One skills during the intensive 16-week program. All graduates from the first cohort have found a job. – TradeArabia News Service