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Swiss-Palestinian ‘Digital Labs’ Project Supports Entrepreneurship at Birzeit University

In partnership with two other universities, Palestine’s Birzeit University is seeking to develop graduates’ entrepreneurial skills, to enhance their capabilities and support their emerging startups as they struggle to become profitable.

A project called “Digital Labs” is one of the latest such efforts. Digital Labs is a joint project with Palestine’s An-Najah National University and EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Rania Abdel-Qader, director of the professional development programme at Birzeit University’s Center for Continuing Education, says Digital Labs aims to increase graduates’ employment opportunities and open new job prospects for them, including self-employment, through the establishment of entrepreneurial projects that keep pace with the changes imposed on the business world by the technology revolution.

“The project is working on designing and developing capacity-building training programmes specialised in data science, artificial intelligence, and digital technology in areas of business development to increase employment opportunities,” she told Al-Fanar Media.

“The project is working on designing and developing capacity-building training programmes specialised in data science, artificial intelligence, and digital technology in areas of business development to increase employment opportunities.”

Rania Abdel-Qader, director of the professional development programme at Birzeit University’s Center for Continuing Education

The trainings are offered in six tracks: leadership, digital marketing, product management, data analysis, customer success, and web design. Each track involves about 80 hours of training and practical activities that help participants build and design the applied project for the course.

Overcoming Challenges

Training programmes like those provided by the Digital Labs initiative could help Palestinian tech start-ups overcome some of the many challenges they face.

“These challenges include the lack of financial support,” Mustafa Jarrar, a professor of artificial intelligence and natural language processing at Birzeit University, told Al-Fanar Media. Potential investors worry about loss and the risk of supporting them, he said, and direct their support to traditional for-profit projects instead.

Another challenge facing Palestinian and Arab entrepreneurs, Jarrar believes, is a lack of fresh ideas tailored to the needs of the local community.

“The local community needs real ideas that meet its needs, away from relying primarily on reproducing Western projects, without evaluating their feasibility in different local environments,” Jarrar said. “This is a result of young entrepreneurs’ lack of experience, and the lack of educational attainment required to establish companies, which requires expertise in economics, computers, and other specialties.”

Khaled Al-Safad, 32, a Palestinian entrepreneur, agrees with Jarrar about the lack of financial and training support during the early stages of setting up and guiding startups until they become financially stable.

“Offering training programs, such as those provided by Birzeit University’s initiative, is necessary,” he told Al-Fanar Media. “Universities and private companies should continue to develop and support entrepreneurial ideas, as well as continuous training in management skills, and provide constant consultations to those who need it.”

Poor financing hinders the continuation of many startups, especially after incurring losses in their early stages, Al-Safad said. Early losses prompt many investors to abandon new startups and search for existing projects, he said.

The Money Problem

Fadia Al-Khalidi, another Palestinian entrepreneur, says another problem is that the lack of support limits the capabilities of startups to reach customers. “Lack of financing is the core of the obstacles facing startups,” she told Al-Fanar Media. “Other challenges include marketing and building a successful business team.” 

Al-Khalidi hopes the Digital Labs project’s programmes, designed to support entrepreneurs and their startups, will be able to provide scientific and applied solutions that can help them overcome these obstacles.

Over the past years, a number Arab universities have launched business incubators to help students establish start-us, providing them with financial and advisory support. Some universities have also begun teaching entrepreneurship as a major to encourage students to keep pace in this field.  

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