2019 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

To address the growing skills gap in the region’s workforce, and to help ensure that opportunities created by technology are available to everyone, we’ve launched Maharat min Google, an initiative to help people get ready for future job opportunities, advance their careers, or grow their businesses. The platform includes over 100 lessons and explanatory videos covering a range of digital marketing skills including search engine marketing, social media, video, e-commerce and more. Many women are contributing to the innovation coming out of the Arab world, yet this region has among the lowest female economic involvement globally. We’ve created a series of short films that follow the journeys of six Arab women who have become entrepreneurs, women’s rights advocates and ground-breaking YouTube creators. They show how technology has helped them overcome obstacles, enabled them to forge their own paths and inspire other women to do the same by learning digital skills.

Cultural/Context information for the jury

The initiative has 3 key components: online platform, in-person training partnerships and short docu-style series. Online Platform: Partnered with the Interactive Advertising Bureau - Europe (IAB) to identify the digital and marketing skills needed by employers, based on their input we created a curriculum with over 100 video lessons and explanatory content. Participants who complete the training, receive a certificate from Google and the IAB. In-Person Trainings: Partnered with universities, governments (National Training Academy), private-sector businesses (ICDL Arabia & Udacity) and nonprofits (INJAZ, EFE, EF) to help more people take advantage of what the web has to offer. This includes the financial support of several nonprofits to scale in-person digital skills trainings (https://goo.gl/FYwTmJ). Docu-Style Films: Researched over 40 women including entrepreneurs, activists and content creators from across the Arab world. We later narrowed down the list to 6 unique, influential and groundbreaking women and produced a docu-style film series.

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Maharat, a new digital skills program, was launched to encourage youth, with a special focus on women, in the region to learn digital skills to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. Women in the Arab world are making great strides by using technology to reach their goals in creativity, entrepreneurship, education, and advocacy. At the same time, MENA has the lowest levels of female economic participation globally. This initiative both celebrates what’s being done by women in the region and inspire others to follow their own dreams, while sharing their stories globally. To inspire people to use digital skills to realize their goals, we created a set of short docu-style films featuring women reaching their goals and empower others (https://goo.gl/vPrBWN).