IUG Faculty of Information Technology celebrated the closing ceremony of FreeSoft Project on Tuesday 17 of Dec 2019 at Heaven’s Hotel. The Project helped in developing the competencies of the IT graduates, students, and academics to integrate them into the labor market as well as qualifying them academically and vocationally in the field of Freelancing. In addition, it promotes the software outsourcing sector to become one of the sustainable branches of the Palestinian economy.
The closing ceremony was attended by Prof. Dr. Ahmed Muhaisen – Vice-President for Administrative Affairs, Dr. Iyad Al-Agha – Dean of IT Faculty, Dr. Tawfiq Barhoum – Project Director, Dr. Hani Najim – Director of World Bank Projects Unit in Gaza Strip, Lina Shamia – Regional Manager of PITA and Mr. Mohammed Shamaa – Project Coordinator.
Vice-President for Administrative Affairs prof. Ahmed Muhaisen stressed: “Today, we are happy to pick up the fruits of the project that has been implemented and supervised by IUG two years along”, pointing out that the project, since it was just an idea, has opened a wide window of new opportunities for the graduates.
“FreeSoft” project has been funded by the World Bank through Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) and implemented by the IT Faculty in partnership with Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies (PITA), Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) and European Institute for Training and Development (EUTD).
Dr. Iyad Al-Agha, Dean of IT Faulty, confirmed that Freelancing has become one of the trends worldwide that help graduates to get jobs under difficult conditions we face in Gaza Strip. He, additionally, mentioned that several courses have been developed such as Freelancing and Entrepreneurship, Technical English, E-commerce, Professional Ethics, etc.
The “FreeSoft” project director Dr. Tawfeeq Barhoum said that the project is a success story of partnership made with the private sector and international institute in Europe, achieving the set goals, reaching a productive, procedural and financial efficiency. He emphasized that and the project sustainability will be assured by enriching the educational plans and sharing transferable knowledge to faculty members.
The Regional Manager of PITA Lina Shamia pointed out that we need to focus on the labor market requirements and bridging the gap between the labor market and the academic sector, as to keep pace with cutting-edge developments in the IT industry, and she noted that the specific activity that was held through FreeSoft project is hiring an international consultant to deliver online coaching for outsourcing companies in networking and market penetration and reaching out to the global market.
