Masdar and Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education Sign MoU to Support Youth in the UAE

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; April 26, 2020: Masdar, a global leader in sustainability, and the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education (AGFE), a leading private philanthropic organisation focused on education, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on using their respective youth platforms to advance the development of young people in the UAE.

His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of AGFE, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer, Masdar, signed the MoU during an online ceremony.

The objective of the MoU is to provide access to students engaged in Masdar’s Youth 4 Sustainability (Y4S) programs to the Al Ghurair Young Thinkers Program (YTP), a structured skills-development platform preparing young people for the transition to university and the workplace. Students will have access to courses on topics including leadership, career planning, communications, online literacy, and personal development.

The Young Thinkers Program, an online, bilingual, digital platform designed to support Emirati and Arab youth with the soft skills and career exposure and awareness required for future success, will be available to over 100 Y4S members.

“Our partnership with Masdar comes to strengthen our support of youth across the UAE and represents the core concept of the AGFE that we have been doing since our launch in 2015. During this unprecedented time, we are increasing our efforts to assure that youth in the UAE and the Arab world are getting a high quality learning. Joining forces with Masdar is a strategic step to continue our support to empower young people and to contribute to the sustainable development of the UAE and the region,” said H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of AGFE.

“We are very proud to collaborate with the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education and to support their vision of youth development in the region. These challenging times have demonstrated the importance of distance-learning platforms, ensuring the education of our youth even in the most testing circumstances,” said Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Masdar. “The UAE has long established itself as a global leader in the empowerment of youth, recognizing that their contribution is integral to the country’s development and we will continue to work with the AGFE to promote distance-learning solutions to drive our nation forward and help realize its vision.”

AGFE and Y4S will also promote their respective programs to their network of members and partners, ensuring a wider reach of their goals and outreach efforts.

Y4S was launched as a global platform in January, under the patronage of HH Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Member of the Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office. The initiative is designed to equip young people with the skills needed to pursue careers in the sustainability industry, combining tailored workshops and real-world experience. In January, HE Al Ghurair attended Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, speaking at the Y4S Forum’s ‘Future Skills Talk’ event on how the UAE is preparing students for an increasingly digitized future.