The Education Affairs Office at the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday, organised a lunch ceremony for its strategic partners, in appreciation of their efforts during the first edition of the UAE Media Apprenticeship Programme, UAEMAP.

The ceremony, which was held at the Westin Abu Dhabi Hotel, was attended by representatives of media companies and local universities in the UAE.

In his speech at the ceremony, Mohamed Khalifa Al Nuaimi, Director of the Education Affairs Office at the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, expressed his happiness with all the participants of the programme. He said it reflected the vision of late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in building an Emirati generation, which had international expertise and was ready to receive the knowledge, science, and technologies to qualify for leadership.

"Since the launch of the UAE Vision 2021, all the country’s institutions have adopted the principles of innovation and development. Thus, the programme comes as an innovative idea to train the national media manpower with international skills and technologies," he said.

The essence of Vision 2021 lies with the institutions in various sectors that are capable of making the UAE among the best countries in the world. This ceremony would not have been possible without the support of the partners for the empowerment of the Emirati youth and their commitment to practising social responsibility towards this nation and its ambitions, he added.

Addressing the strategic partners, Al Nuaimi said, "Your presence with us today to celebrate the completion of this ambitious idea, and formulate an integrated national programme for media training reflects your faith in the potentials and abilities of the Emirati youth to create a qualitative difference in the journey of media in the UAE."

Al Nuaimi welcomed the twofour54 company as a strategic partner of the programme and an important link to guarantee its success, as it would offer support by hosting the main activities on the one side, as well as offer support and media guidance to the participants in the programme on the other, which would benefit them.

Maryam Eid Al Mheiri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority, MZA, and twofour54, said the company’s main mission was to develop the skills of the upcoming generation of Emirati media professionals and polish their talents, and it formed "the core of all that we do."

Since its establishment, twofour54 had made efforts to launch successful training programmes for hundreds of university graduates and provided them with the opportunity to put into practice their training in a practical way within the complex, which held 460 media companies.

The Education Affairs Office had signed Memorandums of Understanding, MoUs, with media institutions in the UAE after launching the UAE Media Apprenticeship Programme last September.

The MoUs discuss several clauses that include the criteria to choose candidates and the number of graduates that the media institution would employ, as well as their training period, in addition to a clause related to sending periodic reports to the Education Affairs Office about the performance of the trainees and their development at various training stages.