IT Skills Centers: Education and Making Money [Archives:2008/1203/Business & Economy]
By: Ali Saeed
A growing trend in Yemeni entrepreneurship market is to open IT training institutes especially during the summer vacation. The students are usually young ambitions Yemenis both men and women who want to learn a new skill and become more empowered in a competitive market place. By this, IT center represent both a successful business model and a service for building Yemeni human resources.
Year after year, the number of computer skills centers is increasing, especially in Sana'a. The latest statistics of the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training show that there are more than 389 licensed centers around the country. In Sana'a alone there are more than 70 such centers and double this number are non-licensed centers, especially on Taiz Street.
Many students feel that it is easier from them to secure jobs if they are graduates of computer centers. “Graduates from IT skills centers get a job faster than university students,” said Mr. Badr Al-Laithi, university student and center graduate.
The courses these centers provide are in the fields of Photoshop, computer maintenance, graphic design, Microsoft Office, and mobile maintenance.
Miss Ruqaia, a teacher in private school and studying computer maintenance in one of these centers, said, “I have learned a lot and now I feel more technologically advanced and I can repair my own computer”.
The requirements to establish a center are to apply the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training. Then, the ministry sends a committee to the place to check the equipment and the building of the center .They evaluate and report what they have found. If the center is qualified, they are awarded the license to work. Mr. Ahmed Abuhamra, manager of IT Excellence Center in Sana'a said, “The Ministry also takes copies of the teacher's qualifications and syllabus content.””
What makes these private centers distinguished from other educational sectors is that any person of any age can enroll at a center. In public institutes
