(MENAFN - Jordan Times) The Women in Technology (WIT) programme in Jordan is calling on women professionals in the IT sector to apply for training and mentorship at companies in the US technology hub of Silicon Valley.
"I call on all Jordanian women who are pioneers in the IT sector to apply for the initiative. This will help them enhance their skills and build partnerships," Diana Al Mallahi, IT coordinator at WIT-Jordan, told The Jordan Times over the phone on Monday.
"Those who are chosen to travel to the US under the initiative will have a chance to meet with IT experts at major and world-renowned companies in Silicon Valley and this helps participants keep up to date with the latest technologies and share expertise and learn," she said.
The TechWomen initiative will select approximately 42 women from different Arab states who are emerging leaders in technology for a five-week programme in 2012, including project-based mentorships at companies in California, workshops, networking events, a conference, and meetings in Washington, DC, the initiative's organisers said in an e-mail sent to The Jordan Times Monday.
Jordanian women who hold university degrees, are proficient in English, and have a minimum of two years' full-time professional experience in technology sectors or in a career requiring significant expertise in technology are eligible to apply to the initiative at www.techwomen.org, according to the website.
The initiative is open to women from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Yemen.
The deadline for submitting applications is February 15, 2012. Finalists will be contacted in March, April and May; all applicants will be notified of the results of their applications in June, and the 2012 mentorships and training will take place in September and early October 2012, according to the TechWomen website.
TechWomen is a public-private partnership funded by the US State Department, managed by the Institute of International Education, and implemented in partnership with the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology.
In 2011, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, Google, AT&T, BASIC (Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium), CA Technologies, Caring.com, Catapult Design, Cisco Entrepreneur Institute, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, IBM, Intel and Microsoft Corporation were among the companies that hosted the mentorships for those accepted under the initiative.
