Injaz partners with Boeing to nurture young UAE entrepreneurs

The Junior Achievement Entrepreneurship MasterClass (EMC) is designed to take students through the process of setting up and managing their own business in an interactive manner. It also gives them crucial exposure to industry professionals thus enabling them to understand the basic skills required to succeed in the private sector.

Conducted by Boeing volunteers and Injaz-UAE, the workshop simulated the start-up of an advertising agency tasked with creating a Save the Planet communications campaign.

The subject was in line with Injaz-UAE's commitment to foster good community citizenship among their students and help teenagers relate to current environmental issues. Seven student teams competed to present their ideas of what would be an organized, creative, cohesive and effective campaign targeting youth. The teams were judged by Paul Kinscherff, president of Boeing Middle East, and Sheikh Khalid Bin Zayed Bin Saqer Al Nehayan, vice Chairman of Injaz Al-Arab and chairman of Injaz - UAE.

"Injaz-UAE's main focus is to encourage each student to explore their full potential. Workshops like the JA EMC give them a quick but strong understanding of their options to make them aware of the support system available to them. Entrepreneurship is the backbone of a sustainable economy and as the UAE matures, future employees need to diversify their outlook to support the economy in the long-term,"

explained Sheikh Khaled.

"The Boeing Company finds its roots in entrepreneurship: The founder of Boeing, William E. Boeing, was an entrepreneur who built and flew his first airplane in 1916. Ninety-three years later, Boeing has grown to be the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined," said Kinscherff, who also spoke to the students about his career and answered their questions during the event.

"As a company, Boeing remains committed to fostering this spirit of entrepreneurship as a means of empowering the communities we work in, and our partnership with Injaz-UAE is evidence of that."

This workshop was the first of eight to be held in schools across the UAE as part of an ongoing effort by Injaz-UAE and Boeing to mentor 700 students in entrepreneurial skills in the next six months.

As part of its Global Corporate Citizenship focus on economic well-being and education, Boeing promotes and invests in innovative programs and quality learning environments for children from birth through higher education to help them succeed in work and life.

Junior Achievement is the largest non-profit business education organization in the world. Since it began its operations in 1919, the organization has spread to over 123 countries reaching 9,326, 748 students this year, globally. In the region, Injaz al-Arab has trained over 300,000 Arab students since 1999.