Under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint Al Hassan

Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint Al Hassan, the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (Int@j) launched, on Thursday, 19 September, SHETECHS, an initiative which seeks to integrate businesswomen into the ICT sector and is concerned with their empowerment. Eng. Ruba A. Al-Zu’bi, Advisor to the President for Science Policy and Programme Development at the Royal Scientific Society, represented Her Highness at the event.

The plan, announced at a conference held in November last year with the support of GIZ, selects 40 female engineers and programmers from the capital Amman and southern governorates—20 from Amman and 20 from the governorates of Karak, Tafila, Maan and Aqaba—to qualify them to work on technology.

Ruba Darwish, a member of the board of directors of Int@j, said that the plan allows women to possess the skills necessary to work on technology and use the internet.

In a statement issued by Int@j, Darwish noted that the selection will occur via a competition that would be announced within days, providing the opportunity to join in accordance to specific criteria: IT programming, technical support, and more. Choice will not be limited to university graduates, but enable women across society to excel in multiple areas of technology, including programming, technical support, and more.

She said that attendees will be trained continuously for 3 months on how to adapt technology for work and productivity and be linked with private companies near their respective provinces.

SHETECHS seeks to frame efforts to increase the participation of Jordanian women in the ICT sector; Jordanian women have a strong footprint in the entrepreneurial sector, as can be testified to the multitude of success stories for Jordanian women founding job-generating projects.

The SHETECHS initiative is a platform that brings together women leaders and workers in the sector and directs them towards achieving specific priorities that will further empower women IT professionals, especially in all governorates of the Kingdom.