Doha, Qatar – 24 February 2022 – Microsoft and INJAZ Qatar launched their project “Women Technopreneurs” this week. The launch event was conducted online via “Microsoft Teams” platform. Attendees from both organizations were present along with the participants, corporate partners, board members and other stakeholders.
Sheikha Hanadi Bint Nasser Al Thani, Chair of INJAZ Qatar and INJAZ Al Arab opened the ceremony with an impactful speech. Mrs. Lana Khalaf, Country General Manager-Microsoft, shared Mirosoft’s vision and explained more about the importance of this project and its impact on society.
The launch included a panel discussion titled “Digital Revolution – Integrating AI in Women Entrepreneurship.” Panelists include Ms. Latifa Al-Thani, Industry Executive, Education Sector of Microsoft, Mr. Emad Al Khaja – CEO of INJAZ Qatar and Mrs. Hayfa Al-Abdulla, Innovation Director at Qatar Science and Technology Park.
It is no surprise that the world is becoming more technologically advanced and dependent. In fact, according to a report on the Future of Jobs by the World Economic Forum, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will bring about 58 million new jobs in 2022 alone. This is as good a time as any to be inspiring, advocating, educating, and empowering women to partake in prominent and leading roles in this booming industry; to be utilizing their creativity, diligence, and remarkable ambition to improve the tech industry overall.
Microsoft, a global leader in AI technology, will be providing extensive AI knowledge and expertise to the participants in this project. This comes in line with Microsoft commitment to accelerate efforts to ensure that everyone has access to the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an AI-enabled world.
Speaking at the launch event, Khalaf said Qatar advanced cloud technologies like AI are driving new economic opportunities for the people of Qatar as organizations across all industries and sectors continue to digitally transform. It’s vital to ensure everyone has access to these economic opportunities, and that’s why Microsoft is accelerating efforts to close the digital skills gap and promote inclusion and accessibility. The partnership with INJAZ Qatar to launch Women Technopreneurs comes in line with Microsoft commitment to empower young women to innovate, lead and succeed in an increasingly digital world.
Primarily, the main focus of INJAZ Qatar as well as INJAZ Al Arab is to cultivate and develop the necessary skill set for the youth to utilize in the business and economics field and workforce. However, this project is a new collaboration model between Microsoft and INJAZ Qatar that essentially focuses on entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on technology and mainly Artificial intelligence (AI) considering it is the current leading industry that is highly expected to be world-dominating in the foreseeable future. A notable feature of this project is that it is fully targeted to empower women to enhance their knowledge, advance their qualifications, and execute their capabilities and talents to benefit the revolutionary, integrated field of technology and business.
Mr. Emad al Khaja- CEO of INJAZ Qatar- has repeatedly expressed his enthusiasm towards the participants and beneficiaries of Microsoft and INJAZ Qatar’s programs and their unprecedented accomplishments. He openly declared, “we’re all working towards one mission, which is empowering our youth to own their economic success. In this collaboration with Microsoft, our efforts are towards equipping young minds with the skill-set needed to succeed in a global economy. Our Start-ups have been producing amazing and mind-blowing ideas, especially with regards to tech and we aim to support them to deliver the same when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) through the Women Technopreneurs project.”
In addition, due to the existing strategic partnerships between academic institutions in Qatar and INJAZ Qatar, the objective is a total recruitment of 30-40 women ranging from the ages of 18-30 interested in a career in technology and AI from within these institutions. The chosen participants will receive direct support, guidance, and assistance from experts, volunteers and members from Microsoft and INJAZ Qatar for 3 months. They will be given the unique opportunity of improving and broadening their skill set, gaining a remarkably enlightening learning experience, and developing a strong work ethic. The participating teams will come up with revolutionary ideas integrating Artificial Intelligence and will be expected to compete against each other in a competition in front of a judging panel consisting of experts and representatives from Microsoft, INJAZ Qatar, and QSTP.
Finally, winners will have the chance to enroll in the accelerator program by Qatar Science and Technology Park offering intensive training and mentorship, enabling promising innovators to transform tech-based ideas into commercially viable businesses.
