Members News

Luminus Technical University College (LTUC) announces the launch of scholarships offering intensive courses in software development for 1,000 Jordanian youth and 150 Syrian refugees, according to a pre-set criteria. The intensive courses will be offered by Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair School of Advanced Computing (ASAC) at LTUC, in accreditation from Code Fellows Academy in Seattle – the US.

These courses are designed to equip students with practical and technical knowledge as well as self-directed learning skills to ensure their readiness to join the dynamic and agile professional landscape. The courses will also work on the students’ soft skills through a career-coaching programme which includes communication and teamwork, before linking them with job opportunities upon graduation.

The scholarships cover an intensive short course programme in one of the two steams, Full-Stack JavaScript or Python provided by ASAC in collaboration with Code Fellows Academy in Seattle – the US. The school offers an internationally accredited certificate that qualifies graduates to work in Jordan and anywhere in the world. This initiative aims to provide job opportunities for the youth across the Kingdom, where the outreach efforts are focused on the governorates of Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, Madaba and Mafraq to help in building the youth’s capacities and skills and link them to available job opportunities.

The scholarships are co-funded through a collaboration between Luminus for Social Development, the Ministry of Labour, the Technical and Vocational Skills Development Commission, and the Qudra 2 programme, co-financed by the European Union, through the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian crisis, the EU Madad Fund, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and in partnership with Tafila Technical University, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Al Albayt University and the Vocational Training Corporation.

Notably, ASAC, one of the 10 schools of excellence under LTUC, was established in 2019 to build students’ capabilities and skills in software development through an ever-updating international curriculum based on professional educators in various fields, and an educational environment that simulates international technology companies and builds students’ skills to qualify them for employment opportunities in the technology sector. The college’s programmes and curricula are constantly updated based on studies with a group of companies operating in the sector that showed the growth of technical vacancies and the need for qualified graduates to receive these vacancies.

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals Resources adopts EB Intranet Solution to manage its intranet portal due to its advanced and flexible features.

EB Intranet system is designed and developed following the latest standards and technologies to ensure a modern and easy work environment through effective features:

• System dashboard that provides simple and easy to track insights.
• Advanced file management and high control of info and list pages.
• Forms
• Various additional modules such as calendar, news, photo gallery, Poll, Ticker, and Video Gallery.
• Content workflow and versioning.

Services such as vacations, leaves and salary slip requests.

CEO of Orange Jordan, Thierry Marigny, affirmed on the importance of the e-gaming industry in the Kingdom, with e-games developers determination to develop their products continuously and in a speedy manner on a global level, during a roundtable held by the company to support the leadership of this important sector with the presence of media representatives ,social media influencers and professional local gamers.

Marigny added that the company realized the importance of e-games, as its one of the vital digital fields, noting that Orange Jordan took many steps to enhance its position in this field, whereas 35% of Jordanians play e-games.

Marigny discussed Orange Jordan’s efforts as a responsible digital leader to develop the e-gaming industry, by supporting talented youth by establishing Orange Gaming Hub, a series of activations in partnership with FATE E-sports, and the recent partnership with Subspace that aims to offer the best connectivity for the gamers on the Middle East server to enhance their experience, noting that Orange’s strong infrastructure supports e-gaming in Jordan.

Orange Jordan is keen to include e-gaming within its comprehensive solutions, especially with YO platform, making its as integral part of the mobile offers, such as the partnership with Playwing to offer games without ads Or purchase transactions inside the games, in addition to added benefits, high speed internet to avoid any lag while playing.

Orange Jordan offers all mobile networks subscribers an opportunity to buy e-vouchers to enrich the gaming experience, through Orange Money e-wallet, in addition to offering everything new to Jordanian professional and armature players, to remain the leader in international developments and users’ requirements.

Jordan’s entrepreneurship ecosystem has been evolving over the past decade resulting in the growing participation of women entrepreneurs. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, Jordan’s female-to-male ratio for Total Entrepreneurship Activity (TEA) went from 0.26 in 2016 to 0.59 in 2019, an improvement of around 127 percent in only 3 years. Jordan has also developed gender-friendly policies for women to equally access credit, sign contracts, register a business, and open a bank account, in the same way as men. This evolution has been reflected in Jordan’s outstanding score of 100 out of 100 in the entrepreneurship indicator as measured by the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) report.

Supporting entrepreneurs in Jordan, both women and men, over the last decade, Oasis500 is a pre-seed and seed fund manager and business accelerator, that provides startups with funding and full access to their acclaimed hands-on six-month business acceleration program, offering technical support and guidance from highly experienced coaches/mentors, among other services. This helps entrepreneurs to build innovative business models and establish scalable startups.

We spoke to Luma Fawaz, CEO of Oasis500 since December 2018, to tell us how she has supported women through the fund & accelerator. Named by Forbes as one of the Middle East’s ‘Top 100 Power Businesswomen’ for the last two years running, her strong passion for enabling women entrepreneurs contributed to Oasis500 record numbers of participation:  80% of its employees are women, and 40% of Oasis500’s 175 portfolio startups have women founders. Throughout her career, she told us she always stepped out of her comfort zone and pushed the limits towards creating a better reality for women leaders in business.

As we look to continuously promote entrepreneurship and private sector job creation across the MENA region, the World Bank’s Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) for Jordan, co-financed by the Central Bank of Jordan, invested US$3 million in Oasis500’s second fund, called Oasis Venture 2 (OV2). The ISSF is the largest early stage/small-and-medium enterprise (SMEs) investment fund in Jordan and is committed to facilitating funding for Jordanian startups and SMEs demonstrating ambitious vision, innovation, and high growth potential.

read the full blog HERE 

The Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) – the largest investment fund of its kind in Jordan – has provided financial support worth USD 250,000 to the CORE@HTU incubator and accelerator, a component of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Excellence (CIEE) of the Al Hussein Technical University (HTU), elevating its operations to better assist technology startups. Delivered as of February 2021 over a duration of two years, this step underscores the mission of the ISSF to promote a fundamental shift within the local entrepreneurial and innovation landscape.

The CORE@HTU serves as a prime example of a university-based incubator and accelerator, achieving promising results and engaging with national and global partners. With the committment of the ISSF, the CORE@HTU will be able to further develop, validate, modify and scale its models, consequently steering other educational institutions towards more creative, dynamic, responsive and investment focused forms of entrepreneurial support. The collaboration will also allow the CORE@HTU to build on its initial success with regards to creating jobs, growing 21^st century skills and technologies, increasing mobilization of risk capital and improving Jordan’s innovation and entrepreneurship ranking. During the first cohort with the ISSF, the CORE@HTU seeks to bolster women representation with up to 22% female founders.

“The ISSF plays an instrumental role in supplying funding for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage Jordanian SMEs, especially those demonstrating ambitious vision and high growth potential, whilst advancing the local entrepreneurial ecosystem by prompting the establishment of technology startups that attract investors,” commented ISSF CEO, Laith Al Qasem. “By supporting the CORE@HTU, we are actively enabling it to expand its scope and present enhanced services to female and male tech entrepreneurs, thus empowering them to transform their ideas into investable projects.”

In turn, CIEE Director, Dr. Yazan Hijazi, stated, “The support offered by the ISSF is closely aligned with the approach of the CORE@HTU incubator and accelerator, which aims to assist local tech startups and equip both female and male entrepreneurs with specialized skills that are based on design thinking and customer centricity. We also strive to foster a practical entrepreneurship and innovation mindset amongst emerging companies, thereby generating jobs and boosting the capacities of youth to build and develop technological solutions that bridge market needs and are economically feasible within the local and international arenas. We are proud of this strategic partnership with the ISSF and look forward to positively impacting Jordan’s rising entrepreneurial scene.”

The ISSF is registered as a Jordanian private shareholding company. The objective of the ISSF is to support and elevate Jordan’s entrepreneurial and innovation landscape by facilitating the establishment of new investment funds that serve the ecosystem; making direct investments in innovative, export-oriented and scalable local startups; as well as implementing initiatives that improve the capabilities of Jordanian entrepreneurs and startup teams through training, capacity building and targeted incubation and acceleration programs.