The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) is empowering a group of tech-minded young students in the UAE by sponsoring their participation in a unique coding journey designed to develop key future skills as part of the Leagues of Code Summer Camp.

The two-week intensive online coding bootcamp debuted in the UAE on Monday, July 26. Involving 32 children and youth representing a diverse mix of nationalities including Emirati, Indian, Iranian, Sudanese, and Canadian residents in the UAE, the bootcamp has been designed to cater to a wide age group, starting with 10-year-old participants with no prior experience in coding up to 26-year-old passionate coders.

This new initiative by Sheraa to shape future changemakers stems from a collaboration with Leagues of Code, an online math and coding academy targeting ingenious innovators; and Harbour.Space University, which utilises progressive ways of learning to bridge the gap between today’s high-tech industry and traditional education.

Participants from the UAE will join coders from around the world to enhance their knowledge in coding, develop general competent problem-solving skills, and build a software project. Through highly engaging team-building activities, coders will strengthen their technical skills essential to solving real-world problems while also building on soft skills such as critical thinking, resilience and communication.

Commenting on the new partnership, Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, said: “We are committed to creating an environment stimulating and exciting enough for the next generation of tech entrepreneurs to grow and prosper. By empowering the UAE’s children and youth with essential programming skills vital to almost every industry of the future, Sheraa aims to expand the opportunities for emerging technology leaders and startups.”

“WithHarbour.Space, we will help skill, reskill and upskill aspiring entrepreneurs and support both the digital transformation and economic diversification policies of the UAE, thus paving the way for more coders in the UAE to receive ‘golden visas’ under the nation’s IT skills programme. This partnership further solidifies Sheraa’s core belief that anyone, regardless of age, gender, or nationality, can participate in the economic, social and cultural development of the country,” she added.

Svetlana Velikanova, Co-founder and CEO, Harbour.Space, said: “We are extremely excited and proud to join forces with Sheraa to solve one of the biggest problems for startups – increasing the pool of world class software engineers trained locally. We observe that an engineering talent density at an affordable price in any region is an essential condition to scale the growth of high tech startups in that region.”

She added: “Leagues of Code helps to identify, train and place locally the most promising young engineering talent early on. Sheraa will also provide mentorship to our future engineers such that they themselves can become startup founders. I think it is an incredibly powerful combination – we are going to train a lot of future technical co-founders.”

Following the bootcamp, which is organised with the support of Sheraa’s community partners: American University of Sharjah (AUS), e7 – Daughter of the Emirates, Sharjah Youth Center, Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Chapter, all participants can also further their learning through internships with startups under Sheraa’s portfolio or enrol in more advanced courses from Harbour.Space.