Back in April 2018, Google launched it’s first Arabic digital skills program, ‘Maharat min Google’. The free program helps Arabic speakers develop practical digital skills through an online learning platform and in-person training.
Maharat min Google in Lebanon
I was happy to deliver Google’s first in-person digital skills training in Lebanon. The training was hosted by Mercy Corps in Achrafieh last month with around 15 selected attendees. A 4-hour intensive training featured practical case studies, and interactive quizzes. The training covered 4 major topics such as growing a business on social media and digital jobs.
Who can access this program?
The program is open to any Arabic speaking individual for FREE. “Maharat min Google” aims to help youth including students and job seekers. The program also focuses on female participation as well. Google hopes to help users advance their careers in the digital industry or grow their businesses.
What will you learn?
Through the online learning platform users can access 26 core topics in digital marketing. Numerous topics included such as eCommerce, SEO, social media, SEM, & Email marketing-to name just a few. After the completion of the entire course, you will receive a certificate from Google similar to the below. 
What you’ll love?
The topics are short, practical and interactive – and of course in ARABIC!
Each video is just few minutes long with different formats. You can also read the transcripts below each video, check your progress and enroll in various topics. You will also solve case studies of local businesses like a florist shop, bakery and barber. What you will absolutely love is the interactivity of quizzes!
The easy-to-use platform is also a feature-rich platform. Certainly, after working for 3 years on online courses and online learning platforms, this is definitely an amazing achievement combining both specs.
Why should you take this course?
It is true that skills gap is a universal problem. But I’ve spoken earlier about the digital skills gap in Lebanon. Likewise, this is also the case in many other Arab countries due to the lack of quality content around digital topics in Arabic. Maharat min Google aims to change this challenge for Arabic-speaking users! Fresh graduates will be equipped with the needed digital skills in today’s workforce. Business owners as well even those in rural areas will benefit from this content.
After 2020, 90% of the jobs will require digital skills!
You can access the online courses anytime anywhere on g.co/Maharat. Future in-person training in Lebanon will be announced soon.
IE Venture Day Beirut showcased the latest in Edtech, Family businesses & innovation, Online & offline business challenges & a startup competition, with insights from Lebanon’s most distinguished speakers, leaders and influential entrepreneurs.
Karl Naim, The founder of ChefXChange addressed the challenges of building his startup team in Lebanon and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Lebanon. The event also featured Roula Moussa, the founder of Netaways, who shared her journey to success. Nicolas Boukather, Chairman of ANB Holding & automotive called for closer collaboration between private sector investors, government and incubators to help youth come up with innovative solutions to challenges SMEs and family owned businesses face.
The event also showcased a selection of Lebanon’s hottest startups. The entrepreneurs gave a three-minute presentation in front of an excited audience and a jury.
Why should you attend events similar to IE venture day Beirut Lebanon? If you want to find your “Aha” Moment or if you want to take your business to the next level. You might as well turn some key insights into golden nugget. If you take away just “one thing” from an event that it’s worth the entire day!
Follow me on instagram if you are a student, entrepreneur or a freelancer in the digital industry and want to get access to all events and entrepreneurship competitions happening in Lebanon & the Arab region!
I have been working in the digital industry for the past 5 years in Lebanon. When I started back then, it was an emerging industry and the online references were limited to couple video tutorials. Today. the resources and academies produced by top companies in the tech industry cover all aspects of the digital skills including coding, design, and marketing. Yet, the formal education system, and graduates displaying a poor work attitude are the among the main reasons fresh graduates in Lebanon can’t get hired or find jobs.
It is true that skills gap is a universal problem. Employers around the world in different business sectors are experiencing difficulty finding the right candidates with the required skillsets and the MENA region suffers from the highest youth unemployment rate (80%) in the world especially among fresh graduates. Yet the absence of digital skills has been a rising issue across all careers whether related to technology or not, with the increasing transformation of how we do things every day.
The HR landscape can no longer apply the traditional business practices. Today, social media plays a vital role in hiring. Most recruitment is done through social networks changing the world of HR professional. Online HR tools are developing to connect and understand employees and to reach and attract talent. Not to mention the quick social media background checks to assess candidates whether that should be taken into consideration or not. Thus, the use of digital in HR is a must and HR professional are encouraged to learn and develop digital skills.
I have given above a very simple example of a business that it’s employees should be empowered with digital skills in order to succeed. But if I had to talk about careers that are the heart of any digital service and in which having digital skills is not an option but rather a MUST. I would be talking about marketers, designers and programmers.
The 3 roles needed for ANY company to thrive in the digital revolution.
A travel agency requires a designer to create couple engaging posts for social media. Also, a developer to constantly update their website, and a marketer to provide a working strategy and the same process applies to any other business.
Today, the most in-demand jobs are those related to the digital skills. There has been recently a significant job growth of marketers, designers, and programmers in Lebanon specifically and in the Middles East in general. I have been trying to recruit fresh graduates in Lebanon in the above fields. Yet, I am really surprised by the lack of the very basic digital and soft skills.
The most common feature is that most show up to the interview late, that is if they actually show up. Most don’t even remember the company they applied to. Not to mention that they don’t actually invest their time in researching what the company does before showing up to an interview.
It is sad that fresh graduates in Lebanon aren’t equipped with the desired digital skills required in the modern workforce. Individuals and with very basic research will notice that for example, graphic designers in most businesses are required to do work for online materials. Such as designing a blog post to be placed on social media, or a banner for a website. Thus, showing up to an interview with couple bags full with university projects won’t really help. It is true that the current education systems in Lebanon have not kept pace with the demand for these digital skills. But what is also true, is that the number of free online resources available to help you learn such activities has rapidly developed in the past couple years. You can check Hootsuite Academy for social media skills, CodeAcademy for coding, TeamTreeHouse for web design…
What is really also surprising is that even when candidates were guided to learn and develop the right digital skills, the attitude of not willing to learn or work on self-improvement makes a big portion of fresh graduates in Lebanon “unemployable”.
Although i have a degree in advertising, and i can remember that most content related to marketing i came across during university was related to the traditional marketing approach and not related to the digital space. So, i did start my career by working for free to understand what digital marketing was. I have managed to develop digital skills when the only available online resources were couple youtube videos. But “i have learned for myself”.
As my career developed, I realised that the “digital marketing skills” are no longer enough. I found myself learning photoshop, illustrator, and Dreamweaver… Possessing such design skills is mandatory. compliment marketing. It helps marketers understand how much time is spent to create banners and how typography and colours represent a brand.
As marketing evolved more and more into the digital space, coding was the next must-have skills. I found myself learning basic coding skills including html, css, and some php. The only was to learn is never reading but rather practising and this blog was born. From installing WordPress, choosing a theme, and editing content. Then tapping into e-commerce with magento, and woocommerce. Installing a payment gateway, uploading a landing page on the server, and editing the content of a bootstrap page helped me understand how better “marketing instructions” can help developers work efficiently.
The digital skills gap is a product of multiple trends that can be summarised into two main points. First, the modern-day digital skill requirements outpacing formal education. Second, companies should be helping fresh graduates in Lebanon develop such skills in the workplace. Fresh graduates should also have the “right attitude” and willingness to learn or else the ability to grow and to innovate in Lebanon will be severely constrained.