Etisalat Academy announces its training indicators for 2003

As many as 1770 training courses had been organized in 2003 with an overall 77,000 training days and a training capacity of 18,100 trainees, 13,335 of whom were nationals, i.e 74% of trainees. The number of training courses rose by 8 percent and trainees by 12 percent respectively compared to the training year 2002.

Equally important, Etisalat Academy has been re-accredited as the exclusive representative of the ISC and the British Safety Council in the Middle East. It has also signed agreements of cooperation with New Southern Hampshire University in the United States and the Institute of Management Development in Switzerland.

' Etisalat academy made impressive achievements in 2003 compared to 2002. The number of training programmes, training hours and trainees rose significantly. This was the result of the directives of the management of Etisalat on human resources strategies and management. This year will see the academy even expanding its training programmes to cover additional sectors through agreements with leading businesses and government departments in the region to train their staff in different areas,' said Dr. Dooa Fares, Etisalat Academy General Manager.

Training courses, symposiums and workshops held by the academy during 2003 covered as varied fields as information technology, information security, e-government, management and marketing, quality management, accounting and auditing, along with CPA training courses and TOEFL preparatory courses.

Participants in the training courses held by Etisalat Academy in 2003 belonged to multifarious sectors such as banking, information technology, government departments, armed forces and free zones. They came from different countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and a number of African countries.

'Etisalat Academy attracted 210 UAE nationals, holders of a high school diploma. They joined different technical and professional diplomas in as varied fields as telecommunications, electronics and information technology. It has also organized placements in Etisalat for 60 students belonging to different UAE universities and 70 female students from the higher colleges of technology,' added Dr. Doaa

In addition, the Middle East IT Security conference 2003(MEITSEC) held by Etisalat academy last October had proved to be a total success. It attracted more than 300 IT security experts and speakers from the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The recommendations issued by the conference were well received by IT security professionals, businesses and organizations.

The Academy focused last year on technical and professional training in IT security in order to meet the dire need for this specialty in the Middle East, and to bridge the current training gap in the region in the field of information security.