Nourhan Tarrad

Digital Egypt Builders Initiative- DEBI

DEBI is a unique initiative that was launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and announced in the presence of the President of Egypt in September 2020. The initiative falls under the pillar "Egyptian Human Development", a key pillar of MCIT strategy for building Digital Egypt. The initiative seeks to empower the next generation of Egyptian young graduates of engineering and computer science colleges to become leaders at the global level and be capable of implementing Egypt's digital vision. The initiative offers, annually, a free scholarship to 1,000 top graduate students from engineering and computer science colleges; they will be selected according to specific conditions and admission criteria to be prepared as young cadres in various fields, including data science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, automation and digital arts. In addition, they will be assigned to a training program on leadership and management skills. DEBI is implemented in cooperation with a number of major international universities, specializing in new technology fields, and local and global companies, working in the fields of ICT or in development of leadership or language skills; those global universities grant technical Master's degree in the field of ICT or a professional Master's degree according to the certificate provided by the university. As for companies, they will conduct workshops in different technology areas, contribute to enriching the educational process and provide training programs to develop students' skills and grant them approved certificates once their training is completed. Each student also receives a certificate in leadership and management skills and an English proficiency certificate from specialized global companies. After the termination of the scholarship and completion of graduation projects students will be highly qualified to work in digital transformation projects, to support building Digital Egypt.