ShareKUWAIT: In an exceptional move to empower young women for a brighter and more innovative future, CODED has introduced the Academy X program, which commenced its classes on Saturday. With a dedicated mission to equip 300 participants with essential entrepreneurial and tech skills crucial in today’s workplace, the program aims to graduate its first batch at the end of the six-day course.
Open to youths aged 14 to 18 from all nationalities and skill levels, the initiative prepares girls to launch their own businesses and address the gender gap in entrepreneurship. “We want to see more women as entrepreneurs and CEOs,” remarked Janna Al-Muqaisib, the program’s lead, in an interview with Kuwait Times, highlighting the importance of challenging the perception of male dominance in founding positions.
Notably, prior experience in business or technology is not required to join the program. “We welcome beginners and those with intermediate skills. We understand they may lack experience, and our aim is to provide them with the opportunity to learn something valuable and different,” Muqaisib emphasized.
By guiding students in effectively utilizing AI to nurture their projects and ideas, the initiative encourages participants to streamline startup processes. Dalal Al-Jassem, an instructor at Academy X, highlighted the inevitable importance of digital thinking in today’s world, noting the necessity of building apps or websites for selling and promoting products and services of any type.
In this context, the significance of AI tools in simplifying content creation and web designing by accessing readymade templates becomes evident. “Our aim is to teach the girls how to optimize their time by learning such tools, enabling them to focus on other critical aspects of their business,” Jassem remarked.
Muqaisib further underscored the program’s core objective in fulfilling the knowledge gap in this specific area, noting that schools and universities often lag behind in incorporating such technological advancements in their curricula. As CODED strives to keep pace with trends and technology, this program serves as a catalyst for change. “Since we rely on these tools daily in the workplace, we realized it’s crucial to integrate them into our curricula and teach them to students,” Muqaisib added.
During her opening speech, she provided an overview of the six-day program, highlighting its holistic learning approach. Participants will engage in a wide range of topics, including foundations of technology, entrepreneurship basics, interface design, project execution, communication, and presentation skills.
The learning journey will conclude with a celebratory event, where students will showcase their final projects and express their aspirations for the future. Muqaisib wrapped up her remarks by acknowledging the invaluable support of strategic partners - Zain Group, Gulf Insurance Group, Agility, Talabat and Kuwait University, as well as M2R for their exclusive digital sponsorship and Kuwait Times and Kuwait News for their media sponsorship - without whom this initiative wouldn’t have been possible.
