Dubai e-Government targets e-literate students to promote awareness of e-Services

A recent interactive presentation by Reem Obeidat, Community Outreach Officer, Women and Education Sector, Dubai e-Government at the Dubai Women's College, received an enthusiastic response from the E-commerce major students of Business, Financial Services and Banking programs. The E-Commerce students also suggested setting up a committee comprising students from DWC to further promote the e-Government initiative and e-Services.

"The education sector is one of the most important segments in our Community Outreach Program, because here we are directly in contact with the future leaders and decision makers of our country," said Salem Al Shair, Director e-Services, Dubai e-Government. "It is important to lay a firm foundation for the e-Government mission in these young minds so that we can be assured of a fully e-enabled future generation, who will be capable of taking Dubai to further heights of success. Our particular focus is also on young women students of today who as future mothers will be the guiding pillars of our society," he added.

"Dubai Women's College is the perfect place for such a presentation," said Fathiya Al Khamiri, Community Development Supervisor, DWC. "We have over 2000 students on campus most of whom are e-literate and familiar with the Internet and e-Services. Dubai e-Government can achieve its mission of targeting a considerable section of society through these educated national women students, as they will be able to create a synergy effect because of their access to families, women's organisations and other social groups."

About 100 students attended the presentation at Dubai Women's College, which highlighted the e-Government experience and emphasised the need to change the existing mindset with regard to e-services, in addition to introducing the students to the various services currently offered on the e-Government portal. The students also had extensive discussions on the various issues related to e-security and e-payment while conducting electronic financial transactions.

"The e-literate women students from the e-Commerce faculty at Dubai Women's College, represent the growing population of young national women who are knowledgeable about e-issues and also eager to take active part in the progress and development of the country," said Obeidat. "The discussions with these students were extremely productive because they were able to comment intelligently on the various aspects of the Dubai e-Government portal and even offered suggestions for upgrading and enhancing it."

Dubai Women's College is the largest college within the Higher Colleges of Technology system with a student-strength of over 2000 students for the last academic year. The college concentrates its academic efforts in Business Studies, Information Technology, Health Science and Applied Media Technology and also offers the only engineering program for women in the HCT - a Higher Diploma in Software Engineering Technology. It has also developed strong relations with the local community and has initiated several programs where the students take part in social activities for the community.