By: Robert
Kwaku Annor
Egypt’s Information
Technology Industry Development Authority (ITIDA), in cooperation with the
National Telecommunications Institute (NTI), has graduated 10,485 university
students from its 2026 summer training programme, as the country steps up
efforts to build digital capabilities and prepare young people for the
technology labour market.
The graduates came from 27
governorates, with the graduation ceremony held at ITIDA’s headquarters in the
Smart Village in the presence of leaders from the Authority and the Institute.
The programme, implemented
for the second consecutive year, attracted more than 40,000 applicants in less
than a week of registration, making it the largest programme of its kind in
Egypt in terms of the number of university student trainees.
The ceremony included
honouring the top graduates and distributing certificates of appreciation. It
also recognised 44 trainees who obtained the Fortinet Cybersecurity
Certificate, students who secured freelance opportunities and the top three
graduation projects.
The programme forms part of
the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s efforts to develop
digital skills among university students through specialised training that
combines technical skills, labour market preparation, self-employment and soft
skills.
It covers eight technology
tracks comprising more than 26 training courses. Each trainee receives 120
hours of training, including 90 hours of specialised technical instruction and
30 hours dedicated to developing soft skills or self-employment capabilities.
For this year’s edition,
participants were required to complete an applied graduation project published
on GitHub or obtain a training certificate from an international academy.
A total of 3,807
participants enrolled in programmes offered by international academies
affiliated with companies including Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Fortinet,
Huawei and Red Hat.
The programme also allowed
trainees to continue in the same specialisation and progress to advanced levels
in the following year or move to another technological field to determine their
future career paths. About 1,200 trainees chose to continue their existing
tracks and advance to higher levels.
As part of the programme,
the first graduates toured the Smart Village, visiting the headquarters of
international and local companies, including Vodafone Smart Solutions and
Valeo, to learn about workplace environments and the nature of job responsibilities
in the technology sector.
