Tech giant Google announced today that it has pledged $10 million to support Palestinian tech graduates, app developers, and tech entrepreneurs.
The financing will fund a three year initiative that is set to help advance the digital skills and tech knowledge of thousands of Palestinians, helping them find employment, according to an official announcement.
“We are committed to helping Palestinian graduates, app developers and tech entrepreneurs unlock more opportunities by providing skills training, facilitating connections to financing, increasing access to jobs and more,” said Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google CFO.
Google also aims to help facilitate career opportunities locally and across the rest of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to support emerging tech youth and entrepreneurs.
“At Google, we know that our efforts will always be most effective when we can work together with others in the private sector, public sector and NGOs. We look forward to partnering with many across the region to expand upon our existing digital skills programs and provide Palestinians with the tools they need to succeed,” Porat added.
The new initiative will have four pillars – developing advanced tech skills, mentoring and building expertise in non-technical fields, providing access to job opportunities and connecting Palestinians with sources of financing.
The programme builds upon Google’s pre-existing career development programmes in the region, including its Arabic digital skills training programme Maharat Min Google, which has supported more than 2 million people and businesses in the region, according to the company.
