Baghdad, Iraq: Building on its fifty-year presence in Iraq, GE is delivering on its commitment to strengthening the skills of young Iraqis by providing scholarships for five Baghdad Business School (BBS) students for a 10-month educational program.
The program will focus on strengthening the business and English-language skills of the participants, helping them prepare for private sector jobs. It will help create a pipeline of talented Iraqi professionals, who will contribute to nation-building by bringing strong and strategic business acumen to their future professional careers.
The 10-month program will cover three subjects: business fundamentals, professional development, and English language. The first module on English language concluded in January, and is being followed by business English and professional development from February to April, and business fundamentals until September. The final module will include subjects such as business acumen, financial accounting, introduction to finance and marketing, economics and specialized mini-courses such as FinTech.
Christine van den Toorn, President of the Iraq Fund for Higher Education, the nonprofit organization that plans and administers BBS said, “Our goal is to enable Iraqi university graduates to work in the private sector. We have designed the curriculum based on years of work on the skills gap among students in Iraq, and how to fill these gaps to prepare them for rewarding careers. Designed for the Iraqi market, the program helps address youth unemployment and generate talented human capital for the private sector. The support of GE will further benefit our students, who can take part in an educational program that will help them build successful careers.”
Rasheed al Janabi, President – Iraq for GE International Markets said, “From our decades of operations and in-country presence in Iraq, we understand the need to nurture Iraqi youth for future private sector careers. The program offered by Baghdad Business School is uniquely tailored to meet their aspirations and build their strengths in core areas such as professional development and business skills. The scholarships we provide highlight our commitment to building the next generation of talented Iraqi professionals and to supporting them in securing jobs.”
Classes will be a mix of virtual and in-person. All will be conducted by an expert faculty of professionals, who have experience working with Iraqi students and the private sector. Successful students will be provided placement opportunities with various companies as interns.
GE’s teams are deployed in the toughest locations across Iraq, bringing power and healthcare to the communities where it is needed most. GE has more than 300 employees in the country, including FieldCore, a GE company.
About GE:
GE (NYSE:GE) drives the world forward by tackling its biggest challenges. By combining world-class engineering with software and analytics, GE helps the world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely. For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today it leads new paradigms in additive manufacturing, materials science, and data analytics. GE people are global, diverse, and dedicated, operating with the highest integrity and passion to fulfill GE’s mission and deliver for our customers.
About Baghdad Business School and Iraq Fund for Higher Education:
IFHE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating new educational and employment opportunities for Iraqi youth. BBS is its flagship program, that prepares Iraqi university graduates for work in the private sector.
