The second part of my recent Middle East trip focused on Kuwait and Dubai. It was fair to say that my colleagues and I were a tad nervous about visiting Kuwait. We’d heard a lot of contradicting stories about the country, and other Gulf States, due to its past, but we chose to keep an open mind.
I’m glad we did. We landed late in the evening and were surprised by the modern and friendly feel to the place. Apart from the chaos at the airport, it was a refreshing country. Most of the centre of the city has been rebuilt in the last decade and the people were so friendly.
We were picked up at our hotel by our partner, Lifelong, who arranged all the meetings for the day. Our first meeting was with the Public Authority for Applied Education & Training (PAAET), with discussions focusing on a CTT+ pilot, which is now live. The meeting went well. There was a funny moment in the car when Bassel, our driver and Business Development Manager for Lifelong, confirmed he thought a full roll out would happen. I do like an optimistic sales person, but a more cautious approach was adopted by us!
For the second meeting we visited the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS), an influential body responsible for training in all of Kuwait’s banks. IBS train 4,000 students annually, so we were pleased our discussions on how to empower IBS to deliver relevant training programs were well received.
Next up, arguably one of the most important meetings of the trip – a visit to the Central Authority for IT (CAIT). This organisation is responsible for all government IT tenders. CAIT is a big supporter of CompTIA’s programs, so we were delighted to come away from the meeting with plans to hold joint events and an agreement to improve marketing to our partners. All in all, a very productive meeting.
Our final Kuwait visit saw us take in the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST). The campus for this university is a new building and very impressive. It is more like one of Google’s offices than a university. It hosts 3000 students and has been a traditional university but now recognises the need to include international vendor exams for its students. With security being the hot topic there, my colleague Mark Plunkett gave an excellent presentation of what CompITA can offer. The outcome: GUST were blown away (sorry!) and will join our CAPP program and start using CompTIA Project +. Great results. Next stop, Dubai…
Etisalat is one of the largest telecoms providers in Dubai, commanding annual revenues of $8b. More importantly, they are a CompTIA partner. A positive meeting yielded many benefits for us. They are planning an event to promote their CompTIA partner status to their customers and I have agreed to speak at their next event on the 16th May. Additionally, Etisalat are scheduling CompTIA courses and promoting them to their internal and external clients; we agreed to assist where possible.
Our next meeting was with one of the more colorful characters in the region, Samer, who runs Vision training in Kuwait. He has some very interesting discussions going on with the Kuwaiti army and the University of Kuwait. He is also working with our friends at CAIT. The Kuwaiti army is very positive about having their people certified and are strong advocates of CompTIA, A+, N+ and Sec+. Another positive meeting for us.
Finally, our last meeting with REI was probably the funniest. This is a new prospect looking to join our program and our contact proceeded to tell us all about his challenges in hosting CompTIA courses. He then went on to tell us why he should join the program, as if justifying to himself! The outcome was that he is going to join the CAPP program and host our training in Abu Dhabi. Result!
Apart from very beneficial meetings, the time we spent networking was very rewarding. It was becoming apparent as we spoke to more and more customers, partners and prospects that the IT profession was starting to be talked about as being as important as the oil industry in the region. The key to developing such professionals, according to those we spoke to, was recognised training and certifications. We worked hard during our Middle East visit, but the reward was hearing how CompTIA is well respected and seen as leading the way in skilling up the workforce for the IT industry to grow in the region.