Initiative makes a difference to the future prospects of talented young Kuwaitis: Kharafi

KUWAIT: Zain Group, the leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa announces the commencement of its 'Generation Z 2019' program for six high-achieving Kuwaiti graduates, who were selected to enter the initiative following a rigorous assessment process.

The 'Generation Z' Youth Empowerment initiative is the brainchild of Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO Bader Al-Kharafi, a keen supporter of developing and empowering Kuwaiti youth. This year's program builds on three previous year-long graduate programs commencing in 2015, which have seen talented graduates from each of the previous years offered full-time employment at Zain.

The aim of the year-long graduate development program is to develop young high caliber Kuwaiti nationals with potential, and enhancing their digital and behavioral skill sets to the level required to support Zain Group's expanding digital lifestyle strategy.

'Generation Z 2019' will focus on developing participants soft skills to foster collaboration and team effectiveness, develop creativity and enable innovative thinking, thereby preparing graduates to enter the workforce and contribute successfully. The program will heighten behaviors already possessed by the participants such as empathy, determination, and team work, as well as develop competencies such as problem solving, influencing people, adaptability and delivering results.

At a ceremony honoring the 'Generation Z 2018' graduates and welcoming the 'Generation Z 2019' graduates held at ZINC, Bader Al-Kharafi commented, "This initiative has matured into a program that is genuinely making a difference to the prospects and experience of talented young Kuwaitis in enhancing their digital skill sets. Investment in and development of young people is the most prudent long-term plan an organization or nation can make, and we are delighted with the caliber of individuals who are graduating from Generation Z on an annual basis."

Kharafi continued, "We live in highly changeable times, and equipping young people with the tools necessary to adapt quickly to new environments is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. We wish the incoming participants the very best in the year ahead, and my advice to them would be to grab this opportunity with both hands and be open to learning as much as possible in a bid to becoming successful corporate leaders of the future."

The latest set of program participants will be helped to cultivate customer-centric ideas that are relevant and impactful. The program is clustered under the themes of Empowerment, Digital Transformation, Corporate Culture and Sustainability, with a focus on developmental areas of interest to Zain including Big Data, digital services, drone technology, mobile money, and data analytics.

Participants will also be exposed to a wide range of corporate and team-building activities, including undertaking extreme sports, volunteering activities in vulnerable communities, developing their self-awareness and international travel to expand on their cultural appreciation and bring emerging technologies and cultural aspects back to Kuwait.

The six new successful candidates for the 2019 program were judged on their creativity, passion, resilience and initiative. They were hand-picked following a two-week-long assessment that included panel interviews, individual research, customer research, team presentations and psychometric assessments. This year's Generation Z program received 277 applicants of whom 77 proceeded to personal interviews. 13 short-listed candidates advanced to panel interviews, with an initial nine candidates being short-listed and finally narrowed to the final six.

The six selected 'Generation Z 2019' interns are: Shaha Al-Khamees; Dalal Al-Sultan; Mohammed Al-Gharabelli; Thuraya Al-Ateeqi; Laila Al-Melhem; and Jumana Al-Mutawa. Over recent years, Zain Group has launched various Empowerment initiatives including WE that is aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering women in the organization to be future leaders. Regarding the company's ZY, Youth Empowerment strategy, many of Zain's Middle East and African operations have rolled-out numerous inspiring youth related programs that can be viewed on #zyouthtakeover.