Category: Freelancing

Palestine: An Untapped Opportunity to Access Rich Tech Talent Pool & Make An Impact

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Startups in the US and Western Europe are continually seeking to acquire new clients and accelerate the time to market, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving these goals depends primarily on having highly-competitive products/ services and reducing software development costs, which requires having professional senior developers. However, having limited financial resources and the shortage of local experienced developers, who usually ask for sky-high rates, created a serious challenge for these startups.

Therefore, many companies now started considering establishing their own remote teams in the MENA region, attracted by the large numbers of highly-educated professional developers who are ready to adapt to different work cultures, the reasonable costs for high-quality services, the ability to scale their services faster, and the use of flexible collaboration models.

Among the MENA countries, Palestine is considered a perfect nearshoring destination because of many reasons. And here are some:

 

High-Quality IT Services at Reasonable Rates

 

Palestine has a rich pool of professional software developers who are ready to work according to your budget and deliver your project requirements with very convenient hourly rates in comparison to those of the same services in the US, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and other regions. This is directly related to the living costs in Palestine which are relatively lower than the living costs in other parts of the world. Therefore, IT services rates in Palestine would be more convenient for companies in countries like the US, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, etc as this would typically save these companies between 30% and 75% of their overall costs (development) without sacrificing the quality of code.

 
 

Wide Variety of Professionals and IT Services

 

Palestine owns a rich IT pool of software developers and engineers with a wide variety of highly-demanded IT services who can help create recruitment pipelines for companies in the US and Western Europe. Developers in Palestine are specialized in Full Stack Development, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, SQL, and many other languages. Since a large number of IT students graduate from IT universities, it is quite simple to find both junior and senior developers to work with.

 
 

Tech Vendors’ Active Recruitment Process

 

Tech vendors in Palestine are continuously on the verge of navigating the region’s IT pool to find talented people and professionals to match them with the clients’ needs. It takes 2-4 weeks to hire a software developer in Palestine and a month to let them go if further cooperation isn’t necessary. The majority of nearshoring tech vendors share risks with their clients and undertake taxes, payroll, and other essential services. In addition, to ensure meeting the clients’ requirements, the vendors usually involve the client in the interviews with the selected candidates.

 
 

Culture Adaptability, Unyielding Motivation, and Continuous Education

 

The increasing numbers of graduates every year created a competitive atmosphere between developers made them follow a path of self-learning to enhance their skills on a regular basis in order to be able to get good work opportunities and engage in the global market. The West Bank and Gaza together have 14 universities, an open university for distance learning, 18 university colleges, and 20 community colleges. Over 4000 IT students graduate from these universities every year. These graduates are constantly on the verge of learning, as the majority is usually engaged in training programs, practice-based courses, and hackathons. In that respect, there are plenty of donors, NGOs supporting the educational and vocational training courses in Palestine to bridge the gap between the education and market and decrease the high unemployment rate in the region.

The fact that the local demand for software development and engineering in Palestine is quite stable motivated the majority of the software developers to look for work opportunities in other regions, such as the US and Western Europe, which helped them become familiar with the Western culture, values, and the work environment of many companies in those regions.

Another factor is having an easy-to-go culture, frequent contact with foreigners who visit the region, and the willingness to learn. Therefore, software engineers and developers are eager to interact with different cultures and build bridges with people in the US and Europe. Through nearshoring, they can explore and enhance their technical skills and capacities and find support and mentorship from people with experience in the tech sector.

 
 

Effective Communication

 

The majority of these developers have intermediate to high English language skills since most higher education institutions in Palestine, especially IT colleges, teach their Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in the English language. Therefore, the software developers who graduate from these institutions have sufficient English language skills that enable them to communicate with their clients effectively. The professionals or senior software developers would usually ask questions and apply critical thinking when taking your requirement in order to let you know that they do actually understand what they should do to give you the result you asked for.
Your team means your methods. Developers in Palestine are ready to adapt to the communication methods or communication channels of your choice, such as Slack, Discord, Skype, Zoom, and many other communication methods based on your company’s preference.

 
 

Convenient Time Zone

 

The MENA region’s time zone is convenient for the “follow-the-sun” working model. For example, the time difference between Palestine and Chicago is 8 hours. This means that the software engineers in Palestine work while the working day is over in the US, which saves time and boosts performance’s pace. Palestine is also one hour ahead of Western European countries, which allows seamless communication and allows a fully-matching working schedule.

 
 

A Great Destination For Business

 

Many international companies, like AXSOS, Freightos, ITG, Harri, and NVIDIA, now have branches in Palestine to keep up with their multinational teams and to benefit from the MENA market which is currently on the verge of becoming among the leading IT markets in the world.

Since there are many MNCs (Multinational companies), such as IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft, and small to medium companies that have offices in Israeli and the GCC, hiring Palestinian professionals as extended teams to support their R&D centers in Israel and the GCC areas would add value and competitive advantage to them in scaling their projects and ensuring effective communication. The extended teams would be working nearby with the possibility to arrange face-to-face meetings between the team members and the R&D centers.

In addition, the business ecosystem in Palestine is founded on international levels to help compete with other business markets around the globe. According to the World Bank analysis of the Palestinian ecosystem, the existence of talented people and founders and the connection with international knowledge resources such as international universities and accelerator programs are the key strength of the ecosystem in Palestine.

 
 

Diversity of Cooperation Models to Suit Your Company

 

Nearshoring companies in Palestine are ready to offer whichever model you choose after checking that this model goes in line with your project outcome, duration, management, communication, etc. They offer flexible models for different kinds of projects to boost performance pace, quality, and scalability. Some of them offer a pilot period prior to long-term commitment to help you ensure high-quality, test your team, and scale faster.

 
 

An Opportunity to Make a Difference

 

By hiring professionals from Palestine, your company would be impacting the lives of many talented, hardworking, young people and women who suffer from the limitation of opportunity in this region. For example, hiring teams of Palestinian developers would contribute to the growth of Palestine’s economy. Youth unemployment in Palestine is one of the highest global rates of youth unemployment: over 58% of college students are unemployed. In Gaza, for example, about two-thirds of those in the labor force are unemployed. About 1,000,000 new jobs are needed to reduce unemployment to 10% by 2030.
Moreover, Palestinian women, who suffer from movement restrictions and social boundaries, are among the most educated in the Middle East. The ecosystem in the West Bank and Gaza has one of the highest participation rates of female entrepreneurs of the ecosystems analyzed by the World Bank. Even though 52% of computer science students are women, 83% are unemployed due to local challenges. These women would love to work for global tech companies to prove their worth and discover their true potential.


 

About MENA Alliances

MENA Alliances is a nearshoring company – for-profit with a social mission- that aims to provide a high-quality remote workforce on-demand. It desires to solve the problem of a local talent shortage for automation while creating economic opportunities for women and young people in the MENA region. Our teams have the ability to scale in a short time and handle small to large projects.

We are on a mission to alleviate poverty and injustice in the MENA region by creating jobs for women and young people in this region. So far, we have trained more than 3000 women and young people and created 700+ job opportunities for disadvantaged people by connecting them with jobs from Europe, the USA (such as Silicon Valley), and the Gulf region.

 
 

Hire vetted developers from Palestine Now!!
Contact us:

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +97 059-938-8102
Whatsapp: +44 7380 980791

MENA Coding School

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About MENA Coding School

 

Throughout our long years of experience in the nearshoring and freelancing field and our direct interaction with both global tech companies and Palestinian talents, we realized the chronic shortage of technical learning opportunities in Palestine and the growing demand for tech talents worldwide. Thus we launched a coding program in cooperation between MENA Alliances and CodeYourFuture. It’s an intensive & inclusive programming course for graduates, women, and unemployed youth in Palestine who want to become professional software developers in the tech industry.  It aims at reducing the unemployment rate in Palestine by equipping many students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become professional developers, creating global learning communities, connecting them with international and local tech companies to increase their chances of finding job opportunities in the tech industry.

 

Our Approach

 

The program includes a vocational blended (online & face to face) training that requires 30 hours a week of self-learning, group studies, practical training, and remote working. The students are going to learn two courses; a self-paced Intro to Coding course and an 8-month Full-Stack Development course. The program is flexible and inclusive, and it does not require the previous technical experience. It also offers support to cover any expenses needed to lower barriers for students to join the program. The program also involves events and workshops with local and international industry experts and business owners to promote Palestinian tech talents to the international market. 

 

The code training program stands on three pillars: 

Led by women

 

Provide a space for talented professional women to lead and thrive in tech. Based on our strong belief that women only need equal opportunities to shine and reveal their capabilities especially in the tech industry, we placed our training program in the hands of female leaders who showed potential for success and they never let us down!

 

Making Connections

 

In Palestine, youths and women are isolated and disconnected from the whole world due to political and social restrictions, which deprives them of having good opportunities to gain more experience and widen their horizons. Therefore, we launched “Ya3ni Talk”,  to provide a safe space for women and young generations to connect with the world while learning how to improve themselves both personally and professionally!
The program offers mentoring, soft-skills coaching, and a global and diverse learning community for our students. Throughout the previous months, we have delivered many Ya3ni Talk sessions on various topics, such as time management, learning new languages, building a professional online brand, setting Goals, etc. Through these sessions, we connect our students with local, regional, and international like-minded experts (writers, entrepreneurs, and tech recruiters, etc.) to help them build their diverse network and improve their hard and soft skills.

Learn & Earn

 

The program goes the extra mile by offering the students a unique opportunity to learn to code and earn money at the same time. As they work on micro-job projects, they will learn how to work on a team, respect deadlines, communicate professionally, manage their time, and improve their remote skills. As a result, they will have the opportunity to promote their self-sufficiency and sense of responsibility.

 

MENA Coding School Updates:


 

Technical and Personal Coaches  

 

Throughout this program, we aim not only at training our students on programming, but we are rather working on creating a diverse tech community in which students, mentors, technical and personal development coaches, and ambassadors all collaborate and support each other to reach their ultimate career goals. So far our program is led & supported by 11 ambassadors, 19 technical mentors, and 17 personal development coaches from the UK, USA, Tunisia, Jordan, UAE, and Palestine who are willing to support our mission in helping Palestinian women and youth pursue their dreams and land jobs in the tech industry. 

Awareness Workshops 

 

We conducted more than 10 awareness workshops (remote) to introduce the program to the women and young people in Gaza and the West bank and we collaborated with universities in the West Bank and Gaza. The workshops resulted in receiving more than 730 applicants. 

 




Students 

 

Over the past three months, more than 300 students from both Gaza and Hebron have joined the program; 241 from Gaza and 98 from Hebron. At the end of December 2020, 70 of them have finished the first phase (Intro To Coding), and they became eligible for the interview that separates them from the next phase. Finally, we ended up with 34 passionate students, who have the desire to master both technical and soft skills and complete this journey to become web developers.

 

Next Steps

 

We have started the program with the “Intro To Coding” phase that was available for anyone who has the desire to enter the tech field. It’s a self-paced stage where the students have a free online course supported by a community of tech professionals to help them get started. Students had to learn the basics of coding, build web projects and get an introduction to the five key employability skills needed for any professional job.



In the next phase (Fundamentals Course), 34 students will learn the fundamentals of coding and the key skills that will prepare them to enter the Full Stack course which will be the last and the most specialized and intensive vocational phase. They will build a core understanding of programming and computational thinking, learn advanced tools that are used by global tech companies, and practice interpersonal skills that all employers want; such as problem-solving, critical thinking adaptability, and teamwork which will get them an interview at tech companies. 

 
We’ll keep you up to date with our news, so keep tuned!! 

 

MENA Coding School | 2020-2021

Why Do Micro-Jobs Matter?

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The term “micro-jobs” existed many years ago, but its concept has recently grown to comprise more online tasks in response to the widespread use of the Internet all over the world. This has definitely brought a lot of benefits to different categories of people. However, many are still skeptical about this type of work and doubt it is worth being considered a reliable source of money.

In the beginning, it is so important to define micro jobs as a lot of people are unaware of their existence in the first place. “Micro jobs are a type of temporary work that involves completing assignments or tasks for a fee per assignment. Micro jobs can include work that is completed online or in-person.”[1] In-person micro-tasks include one-time babysitting, dog walking, handyman work, and so on. Online ones are so many; for example, writing blogs & articles, translation, transcription, data entry, graphic design, filling in surveys, designing websites, etc. 

In MENA Alliances, we believe that although micro-jobs are neither a full-time type of job nor a steady source of money, they still make a big profit for both the company and the workers. And here is why:

Source of good money

Despite the fact that a micro job includes doing small tasks for a tiny amount of money, it is worth mentioning that the sum of money one collects from this type of job mainly depends on the number of tasks one accomplishes. So let’s say that a digital task pays 0.20$ and takes 3 mins to complete. In an hour, one will most probably finish 20 of these tasks which means collecting 4$ on an hourly basis. If one works on this type of task for 6 hours a day, this will pay them 24$. Consequently, with continuous work on these tasks, one will almost earn a total of 528$ a month – taking into consideration 8 days of the weekend. That may not be an amount of money that one can rely on for a living – especially in developed countries – but it can help in one’s daily expenses.

Ali was one of the successful examples we had in MENA Alliances. 

He was a university student when he joined our latest micro-job project in which he had to accomplish several mini digital tasks based on AI. He spent his first days of work getting trained on how to carry out the assigned tasks. Later on, he started the real work and increased the number of hours and amount of time he spent accomplishing the work which paid him 500-1000 $ for several months. Thanks to this large income, he could pay off his university’s debts. 

For a student who has no technical skills or experience that could qualify him to land a job in his field of study, that was absolutely a large quantity of money. More importantly, this experience didn’t only pay Ali enough, but it also made him believe in the existence of remote work and how it could be a good source of money if one pays adequate attention to it.

Stepping stone for students and fresh graduates

It is quite hard for students and fresh graduates to land full-time jobs with zero practical experience and no skills. Therefore, they usually search for internships and volunteer opportunities in which they can cultivate their skills and enrich their CVs. Micro-jobs usually do not need any complex skills or experience, and this makes them a perfect learning experience for many.

Since we – in MENA Alliances- are committed to discovering the talented women and youth in the MENA region, we consider micro-jobs as a stepping stone for the talents to start and build a thriving career. Consequently, we established our MENA Alliances training coding program to upskills our talents who are passionate about investing in their soft and technical skills to gain sustainable job opportunities in the tech industry.

Moreover, as our workers accomplish their tasks completely remotely, they get adapted to remote work – which is the recent trend of the business world- as a plus profit!

Huda from Gaza is a great example of this case.

Huda has graduated from English Department and worked as a teacher in a small local teaching center in her neighborhood. Working on one of our micro-job projects was her first remote job ever. This opportunity didn’t only pay her enough to cover her individual expenses, but it also opened the doors of the world of freelancing and remote work; the approach which she adopted for her career life later on.

Convenient for housewives and mothers

Women who got married right after graduation and focused too much on their families are usually totally detached from the work mode. And to put them back on the work track, they need a cushy type of job as a warm-up. Micro-jobs projects will not only improve women’s soft skills to ease their return to work, but they also can make them gain money independently increasing their self-confidence and motivating them to invest their free time and efforts in a real job. Moreover, a lot of mothers choose not to go out and work for the sake of their children, so working on such easy tasks at their homes on their own schedule will certainly be all that they ask for.

“My advice to all moms is to invest well in themselves by organizing their time and working remotely at home. As long as they plan their day, they can do anything!”

This is Amal, one of MENA Alliances’ ambassadors who previously worked on one of our micro-job, AI-based projects. Through this experience, she learned how to take care of all her household duties while being a productive person on her job, as well.

Amal is one of our inspiring examples of how our micro-job projects could change women’s lives and encourage them to get back to work after long years of hiatus. And as we know for sure women everywhere need a chance to show off their abilities, we keep on bringing such projects to the Middle East and North Africa opening doors to thousands of women in the region.

Discover hidden gems

A lot of passionate and talented youths are buried either because of the rareness of opportunities or their lack of experience on how to position themselves in the labor market. Therefore, if nearshoring and outsourcing companies bring micro-job projects into their countries, more young people will have the chance to shine and see the light; especially that such projects usually need a large workforce to finish on time.
Yasmeen from Gaza is a great example of this! 

Yasmeen is a diligent, smart, and hard-working English Education graduate whose first work opportunity was with MENA Alliances. She basically worked on micro-tasks of transcription and stood out as the most passionate and active member within a team of 20 youths, thus was granted a position of team leader for another project. And recently, as Yasmeen showed a high degree of proficiency in communicating and dealing with employees’ matters, she is appointed to the position of Human Resources Director. Such energy and dedication wouldn’t have been invested if such an opportunity was not given to her. Yasmeen is one example, but we have actually got many of MENA Alliances’ hidden gems throughout similar projects of micro-jobs.

For that reason, we in MENA Alliances believe that micro jobs do not only bring benefits to those who work on them individually, but they are rather advantageous for outsourcing and nearshoring companies as for the talented youths they uncover.

In the MENA countries, micro-jobs are unfortunately not as famous as they are in other countries. Therefore, as we are aware of their benefits, we work on these types of projects engaging as many women and youths as to catch up with the great progress that the developed countries have achieved throughout the previous decades.

"فرصة عمل" للموظفين التقليديين، "تجربة مؤثرة " لأصحاب الشغف

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قد تبدو فرصة العمل هذه في شركة مينا أليانسز للناس مجرّد مهمة يتقاضون أجرها نهاية كلّ شهر، لكنّها لم تكن كذلك فحسب، لقد صنعت فارقًا كبيرًا منذ اليوم الأول من أيام التدريب قبل الشروع بالعمل، كان التدريب قائمًا على توضيح الأدوات التي سنقوم من خلالها بتعريب محتوى فيديوهات موقع اليوتيوب وتحويلها من مادة سماعية إلى نصٍ مكتوبٍ بلهجته الأصلية التي نستطيع الإستماع إليها عند تشغيل الفيديو مباشرة.

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فمن خلال الإجتماعات عبر الإنترنت واللقاءات المرئية التي كانت تجمعنا مع المسؤولين في الضفة الغربية تمت عملية التدريب خطوةً بخطوة حتى أتقنّا كل خطوات العمل واحدة واحدة، ثمّ خضعنا لإختبار القبول، وما زلتُ أذكر يوم تقديمي لذاك الإختبار الذي كان يتحدث محتوى الفيديو فيه عن طريقة صنع أحد أنواع الحلويات، فحينما قُبلت، وجدتُ نفسي أطبقه فعلًا على أرض الواقع!

إنّ أحبّ الأعمال إلى الأشخاص تلك التي يعملون بها بكلّ شغف وحب، بل تلك التي تضيف لهم كمًا هائلًا من المعلومات حول الثقافات المختلفة، والموضوعات الكثيرة التي تشغل بال العالم سواء أكانت دينية، ثقافية، إنسانية، سياسية، طبيّة وغيرها الكثير والكثير من التصنيفات، وهذا الأمر تحديدًا ساعدني على وجود حافزٍ أكبر إذ أنّي كنت أتعمّد إختيار الفيديوهات القصيرة لأستطيع أخذ الكثير من المعلومات التي لا يمكن أخذها من فيديو واحد يصل إلى ساعتين مثلًا.

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لقد اكتسبت مهارة الإستماع، كنتُ قليلًا ما أتحدث بسبب حاجتي للتركيز الكبير مع ما يقولون لإختلاف لهجاتهم التي يتحدثون بها وسرعان ما تعلمتها من التكرار المستمر، وهذا الأمر تحديدًا كان له الأثر الكبير في حياتي الإجتماعية، مهارة الإستماع وحدها كانت تكفي لأن أحسن فهم الأشياء، تعلمتُ كيف يمكنني أن أكتب بسرعةٍ تنافس سرعة الحديث حتى أصبحتُ حقًا أشعر بيداي تكتبان لوحدهما دون حاجة مني لأن أنظر إلى لوحة المفاتيح، وهذا الأمر أدى حقًا لوجود قدرة لدي لإنجاز عملٍ أكبر بوقتٍ أقل.

أثناء تجوّلي بين الفيديوهات والتعلم منها، أذكر كثيرًا أني كنتُ أجد نفسي في تساؤلاتٍ عن كلماتٍ معينة في لهجة ما، أو قضية ما، وهذا الأمر أدى لوجود حبّ إستطلاع كبيرٍ يثري معلوماتي بشكلٍ رائع جدًا، ولربما بعض المصطلحات التي لا نفهمها إلا بعد الشرح، الكثير من الشخصيات الهامة التي لم نكن نعرفها، الكثير من الأحداثالتي جهلناها ربّما أثناء انشغالنا بحياتنا، كلها كانت حاضرة أمامي وفي متناول يدي، وكما يقول من قال، إن لم تُحب ما تفعل، وتنقله لحياتك الخاصة، فأنت لا تفعل شيئًا إطلاقًا.

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إنّ كل ما ذكرته بالأعلى لم يكن إلا جانبًا شخصيًا واحدًا، أما على الصعيد العملي والمهني، فالحق يقال، كان كلّ شيءٍ يسيرُ بشكلٍ رائع، حتى الفريق كان متكاملًا ما بين مسؤولين ومدققين وموظفو العمل الحر، لقد اكتسبنا جميعًا مهارة فوق كلّ هذه المهارات وهي العمل بروح الفريق وإقتسام الأدوار فيما بيننا حتى يكون نجاحنا مشتركًا لا نجاحًا منفردًا، أذكر أنّي كنتُ كثيرًا ما أطوّر قدرتي على العمل بشكلٍ صحيح في كلّ مرة أسهو عن شيء ما ويُرجعُ لي أحد المدققين هذا الملف ليخبرني عن مكان الخطأ الذي وقعت به، فأعمل جاهدة على عدم تكرره أبدًا وأعاهد نفسي أن أتقن العمل للمرحلة التي لا يعود لي بها أيّ ملفٍ آخر.

لا شكّ أنها لحظة صعبة حين تعمل على فيديو ما ولربما قد يطول إلى ساعة أو نصفها ثم يعود لك ما عملت عليه لتقوم بالتعديل على جزئية ما، لكنّ الذي يريد التعلم من أخطائه سيقبلُ كلّ ذلك بصدرٍ رحب، الخطأ ليس عيبًا، العيبُ أن نمرّ عليه ونكرره دون محاولة واحدةٍ حتى لتصحيحه، وهذه أهم خطوة من خطوات إتقان الأعمال.

 تبادلنا الحديث كثيرًا بيننا حول كيفية العمل مع المسؤولين وتواصلنا بشكلٍ دائم مع المدققين والذين جميعًا لم يقصّروا في تواجدهم أبدًا على مدار الساعة حتى نكون يدًا واحدًا في تجاوز هذه المرحلة الأولى،تشاركنا كثيرًا طرقًا اكتشفناها للعمل حتى نسهل على بعضنا البعض ولا يقتصر الواحد منّا على نفسه أبدًأ حلًا لمشكلة ما.

 

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من الخليل، نابلس، الأردن وقطاع غزة، تلاقينا هُنا دون أن يكون هذا اللقاء وجهًا لوجه، لقد حاربنا المسافات الجغرافية هذه بحبّ العمل والشغف، بالتعاون وروح الفريق الواحد الذي يتقاسم الأدوار ويتشارك النجاح، نعملُ سويًا في عالمٍ افتراضي عبر التطبيقات، لكن ذلك لم يكن معيقًا ابدًا، ونجحنا في تجاوزه.
 

The 2025 Workforce: Will Your Organization Be Relevant?

Posted on by Abeer Abu Ghaith

The global economy and its workforce is in the midst of a seismic shift. The internet and its far-reaching implications for changing how the world does business is still in its early stages. Leaders and organizations that are looking to the future know that the workforce skills and ways of doing work are not going to be what they have been in the past. Digitization and women play a major role in the relevancy (and existence!) or future organizations.

According to a study five years ago, the internet created 2.4 jobs for every job it destroyed. (McKinsey’s report). Five years ago (in internet terms) is a very long time when only 28.8 percent of the world population had access to internet – now approximately 50.1% has access. 
 

What does that mean for your business and organizations that are trying to look into the future not only for survival but for relevance and continued growth?

 
It means that more than four billion people, or over half of the world’s population is still offline. The value of connecting these people is significant, and as they enter the global digital economy, the world of work will transform in fundamental ways and at an unprecedented pace. Savvy leaders and organizations will need to understand and know how to benefit from this unprecedented pace of transformation in the workplace.

 

There is massive potential in terms of economic value for countries and entities that are willing and able to adopt and adapt to rapid technology. But along with that adoption comes the need of major redeployment and retraining of the labor force. For example, in India, innovations that are derived from new digital technologies could have an economic impact between $550 billion and $1 trillion per year in less than 8 year’s time. That economic value will only be realized however if more people and businesses have access to it. (McKinsey’s report)
 
There are major differences and a considerable amount of unevenness in the access available between sectors, companies and countries at this early stage in the progress of digital technology. It is not enough to merely have access to the technology. There are limits to the benefits of digitalization in sectors/countries where literacy and skills are lacking or limited.
 
For example, emerging economies, in countries like Brazil or countries in the Middle East are currently estimated at capturing less than 10 percent of their potential with digital technology. Europe is a bit ahead of that with only 12 percent. The U.S., although ahead of other countries, has only tapped into an estimated 18 percent of its potential for digital technology! (McKinsey’s report)
 
A major opportunity that the U.S. has to increase its digitization in three areas include:mckinsey-global-institute-report-a-labor-market-that-works-connecting-talent-and-opportunity-in-the-digital-age-24-638

1) the Internet of Things, 2) big data analytics and 3) online talent platforms.

 
 
Online talent platforms (like MENA Alliances) help find the right people for the right jobs, which benefits both the employer and the talent while also increasing job satisfaction and, ultimately, productivity. There are job matching sites (like Monster and LinkedIn) that are changing the ways companies find and recruit talent and also expanding the way people look for work. Digital platforms such as Upwork, Uber, and Etsy are changing the way we have previously looked at how and where work is done.
 
 

The Future of work and women in the MENA region

 

The Middle East and North African countries have the most to gain over the next few decades because of the estimated 50 million who will be coming of age to work in the MENA region. 
 

If MENA women’s participation would reach that of men’s participation, the estimated figures could reach as high as $600 billion annually ($2.7 trillion by 2025).  (3)

 
 

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In recent decades, gender equality in education has been making strides with regional advancements. But even with these educational advancements, only one out of three women in MENA is in the labor force. The global average of women in the workforce is almost at 50%. However, Arab women’s participation is only half of that average. The World Bank predicts that at that current rate, It will take 150 years for MENA countries to reach the current world average of 50%.
 

The rewards of including more MENA women in the workplace will be substantial. This is now the time that we must get serious and find ways to make strides toward this important endeavor of opening opportunities in digital technology to MENA women.

Remote work opens a massive job market for women at the global level regardless of where they may live — as long as they have access and the ‘know how’.  

 

This remote workforce will benefit employers and ensure that they stay relevant and thrive in the new global market.

 

Savvy regional and international leaders and organizations will invest in and embrace these new digitized technologies by opening to this new talent pool.  By hiring remote workers in your business, you can hire the best of the best. At the same time you are not limiting your organization by geographical restrictions. Your organization will increase productivity and save money.
 

 Resources: 

  1. McKinsey’s report
  2. World Bank (2014, 2015)
  3. “First Jobs for Young Women in the Middle East & North Africa: Expectations and Reality“ is a research initiative from Education For Employment (EFE), Bayt.com and YouGov. You can learn more about the initiative and read the white paper here.

Proven Rules for Success from an Inspiring Woman Freelancer

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I am Sara. I am a 29-year-old Egyptian professional who makes my living as a translator. My degree is from the English Department of the Faculty of Languages, Ain Shams University. My favorite pastimes/hobbies are reading, walking, and travelling. I am single and my greatest ambition is to work for the United Nations one day.

When you work in a field that provides a service that thousands of others also offer, success becomes quite challenging. It took me almost six years in the translation field to learn two important rules that I always follow:

RULE ONE : I Will be NEVER too good

to learn

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There is always space for improvement and doing better, and there will be always an extra mile to go. Don’t get disheartened by the poor quality and dozens of mistakes you make in the beginning. Instead, make those mistakes the driving force that leads you to new achievements.

 
 
 

RULE TWO : Maintain a GOOD cooperative relationship with others

 

GettyImages-558948367-574e42d15f9b585165983c88This rule played an important role in my small journey as a translator so far. You can market yourself as much as you can, you can shout from the rooftops: “I am the best, hire me!” but unless you have others’ support and the positive word-of-mouth working for you and your services, you will not go very far.Try also to master a third or a fourth language.
 
Mastering two languages only is no longer sufficient in our field, but do not forget that the keyword here is ‘master’. Don’t even think about learning a third language if you are not EXCELLENT enough in your second language.
 

 
 

 

Don’t start working in translation if you have not mastered your own native language.

 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep”

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Similarly, don’t commit to projects you know you can’t finish with the best quality and on time no matter how tempting the money may be. After all, it is your reputation that is at stake, and you don’t want to risk it — no matter what. Treat clients with respect and utmost commitment, and treat your tasks with love.

One of my great mentors once told me “treat any task you work on as if it was your son. Love it. Nurture it. And it will support you later like a son does when he gets older with his parents.”
He was right in every single word. Good work speaks for the worker, and that’s how good translation tasks support the translator. They make a mark. They make an echo. And they make you proud and successful.

 

“Don’t sell your skills cheap”

After gaining enough proven experience, it is normal to adjust the prices of the services you provide according to the market around you and the level of quality you offer. Don’t settle for low payment because the work flow is continuous and regular. After all, a job that does not fulfill your ambitions and does not raise your expectations is not worth having. Always look ahead.

 

My primary tool for finding work would be LinkedIn. I use it to look for companies that work in the same field, then I apply to cooperate with them. Some of the tools I use In my work include: CAT tools, such as Trados 2007, Trados Studio, Loc Studio, Wordfast, Passolo, Workspace Xliff Editor, SDLX, MemoQ, Across, etc.

To sum up, I guess the most important things to do to be a successful translator are to work hard and improve yourself constantly; maintain fruitful collaborative relationships; read the future’s challenges and prepare for them; and finally, have confidence in your abilities and skills.

 

Are you looking to expand into MENA markets? The time is NOW!

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MENA is a fast growing market of millennial, high-tech and discriminating buyers. To achieve marketing goals of selling products, delivering services or providing information in this emerging market, organizations should ensure that their content is relevant, understandable and desirable to the buyer. In order to have the most effective marketing, technical communication or even company-wide communications the materials must be localized. Localization opens roads to developing new markets through increasing revenues, and bringing the much sought after economies of scale.

Localization is more than the translation of words or text. Localization services ensure that products or services have the look and feel as if they originated in the target market. International companies and enterprises localize products or services in order to overcome cultural barriers for their products or services….and to reach a much larger target audience.

MENA Alliances specializes in the localization into the MENA Region (from English to Arabic) through the following services

 1. Software & App Localization
 2. Multimedia Localization including
 

  • Voice-overs
  • Script creation or transcription of the original master
  • Script translation
  • Subtitle translation and production
  • Video production
  • Audio and video postproduction
  • Art and graphics localization
  • Animation localization
  • Cultural assessment of multimedia content
  • Multimedia quality assurance

 
3. Website Localization
4. Social Media Content Creation & Management
5. Marketing Documentation Localization–User guides, manuals and tutorials
6. E-Learning Localization
 
For More Detailed Information on any of these services and pricing, please contact us @  www.menaalliances.com/customer
 

Transform Your Business and Drive Strategic Value

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A New Model to Transform  Your Business and Drive Strategic Value – An Alternative to Outsourcing & Freelancing

Recruiting and Hiring best talent and managing people, along with the dynamic forces of technology and globalization are bringing increasing challenges to small and medium size businesses (SME). What if there was a Change Management model that could drive major, enterprise-level transformation? Read on—there is such a tool.  www.menaalliances.com

Forget what you know about Outsourcing & freelancing. The market has been saturated with online workers and freelancers. These workers have provided businesses with more choices and diversity. And outsourcing has proven cost effective in many situations by taking away high expense of overhead costs involved with hiring employees, providing benefits, needing space and other resources for those employees. Outsourcing has alleviated many of the costs and hassles involved with hiring and managing employees. Virtual assistance on a variety of projects from website & mobile development, graphic design to business processes is available from these independent workers.

The challenge with outsourcing is finding the best talent, oversight (management of projects and people), concern for security of information, and quality assurance. SME leadership still has to take the time to manage and do quality assurance on these projects.

MENA Alliances offers a new alternative—an alternative that drives strategic value and includes oversight (management of projects and people), security of information and quality assurance. MENA Alliances is a new breed of organization that offers Remote Services Resourcing.

MENA Alliances’ carefully design oversight process works like this: (see above).

CLICK HERE FOR OUR OVERSIGHT PROCESS

For more information and pricing, please contact us at [email protected]menaalliances.com

Freelancer Of the Month: Dr. Rania Filfil

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In 1rania2987,I left Palestine for eight years to further my studies. I had obtained an IB diploma from Lester B. Pearson College in Canada (1987) and then an MA in Applied Foreign Languages from Lumière University- Lyon, France. That same year, my mother was extremely ill and I decided to return to Palestine to be near her. She passed away that same summer and I was on the move again. I was already doing translations here and there – even before going to university.

These translations included interpreting for the French Consul General at the opening of the French Cultural Center in Gaza in 1989, and translating play therapy sessions at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. However, still in the mindset of having a ‘fixed job’, I started working as Public Relations Officer for the World Trade Center (WTC) in Gaza. Signed up for a Ph.D. Program at La Sorbonne University in Paris.

My position at WTC was very interesting. Every day involved a variety of activities and I had the opportunity to travel for my job. However, I could not accommodate the working hours. I wanted to be in control of my own time.

 

In 1998, while finishing (and defending) my Ph.D., I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. I decided then that becoming a mother was the most important thing and I quit my job. By that time, Birzeit University was establishing the Institute of Law, which needed a lot of translation and interpretation work. With this, I started my career as a freelancer. I realized very quickly that I should plan realistically.  After some harsh experiences, I learned WHEN to say ‘yes, I can do it’ or ‘No, I cannot do it”.

This became my strategy. I put family first and filled in the free time with translation. I targeted quality first. Therefore, I raised my fees and explained to all my clients that I do one job at a time and submit a finished ready-to-use product. I kept my promise most of the time and respected quality and deadlines.

Moreover, I was transparent about the problems I faced, even if it meant telling my client that after having started the job, I did not think I was the right person to do it. Most clients appreciated the honest communication and I could refer them to the translators most competent for their work.

This strategy enabled me build cooperative rather than competitive relations with other translators. Virtually, we acted like teams and stepped in for each other.

The major problem I face is the current taxation system, which compels a home-based translator to spend hours of administrative work and to issue VAT invoices with payable taxes every month even when the invoice is not collected. Paying taxes consumes much of my time and efforts, and I have been calling for reform to ease on the procedures, but have received no official response.

 

The best part of my work is that I can take some time off and focus on my family, which I have been doing for the past two years. During this time, I participated in writing a book about Politics and the Power of Tourism. I wrote the chapter on Gaza, the “Missing Assets”.

My day as a freelance translator/interpreter does not have any fixed routine. I may work from home, from a café near my children’s school or at a swimming pool in Jericho. My office consists of an efficient laptop and Internet connection. There are days when I have conferences to interpret and I act like an employee for these days. I always say, I can work, swim and cook at the same time.

Dr. Rania Fulfil

How to Be Professional on MENA Alliances platform

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How To Set Up An Account on MENA Alliances Platform

Registering and applying for MENA Alliances is an easy process! Below we will clarify simple steps for successful application to MENA Alliances’ freelancer program. To open the CONTRACTOR FORM follow these steps:

  1. Go to menaalliances.com

  1. Click on “Work”

OR
Go to the quick access menu at the bottom of the main page, and click “Become a Contractor”
OR
Type the following URL into your browser:   http://menaalliances.com/freelancer/ .

  1. After you have successfully reached the CONTRACTOR FORM, complete the required fields. *Required fields are marked by a red star. Please fill in all fields, otherwise your application will not be submitted successfully. After filling in all data, you can upload your CV in the upload section. There is a space to write comments or information that you think is important to be known about you.

  2. You are almost there! By clicking the button “Submit” at the bottom of the page, your application will be automatically sent to the recruitment office.

  3. You are done! You will receive an automatic email stating that your application was received and will be processed soon. The email will be sent directly to the email address provided earlier in the email address field.

Our Recruitment Process

 

Where does you application go once it is submitted? It will go through a systematic procedure that is briefly explained in this section.
The recruitment process at MENA Alliances consists of two major stages including: (1) Talent Review and Sourcing and (2) Attraction and Acquisition.

 

Stage 1: Talent Review and Sourcing

The main goal of this stage is to review and target potential talent/contractors that have unique skills in one or more of MENA Alliances’ service/product fields. This process will take place for each field of work.

Stage 2: Attraction and Acquisition

This stage includes four main processes as follows:

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Screening

At this point, each candidate must have completed and submitted the CONTRACTOR FORM offered on the MENA Alliances official website. The screening process begins with viewing and analyzing of these applications to identify the potential contractors based on skills, experience, background and samples of previous work (portfolios).

Assessing

The applications will be assessed and filtered according to the pre-mentioned factors. After that, the shortlisted candidates will pass to the next step.

Interviewing

After short listed candidates are identified, first-round interviews will be conducted for each candidate by the Talent Acquisition Specialist to obtain in-depth information about each candidate regarding his/her specialty. Another list (the Final List) will be prepared including only the candidates that show a certain level of seriousness, commitment and proficiency to go through a second-round interview – conducted by the business department.

Selection & Categorization

The contractors who pass the final round of interviews will be selected and contacted to verify availability, span/time of work and contact information to be ready for future offers.

MENA ALLIANCES provides a key differentiator in the MENA talent marketplace by providing businesses with hand-picked Freelancers through a creative selection process.As well as end-to-end Service Offerings utilizing a mix of the Talent Network and in-house experts.

MENA ALLIANCES’s Talent Network is classified into three different groups as the following:

Talent Levels

 

Additionally, the MENA ALLIANCES Talent Network is built to ensure that each level of talent is given opportunities that leverage their skills while ensuring that the rigorous selection process and quality of our talent reflect MENA ALLIANCES’s quality standards.

GroupPayment RateQuality Assurance OversightScope of Work
SilverLowHighSimple jobs
GoldMiddleMiddleMid-complexity
ExpertsHighLowComplex Jobs/need high skills

 

Talent Network Resourcing Model enhance the capacity of freelancers at Silver level, as they will receive direct feedbacks and comments on their work from freelancers at experts level which will give them the experience that they will need.

 

How to Become a Professional Freelancer at MENA Alliances

 

Tip 1: Show your Work/Create an Online Profile

 

When you are new to freelancing, getting your business off the ground is all about hustle: creating a solid and complete online profile and web-presence; finding ways to prove your skills; and being persistent in your pursuit of new clients. This is how most freelance work is offered: remotely and online!

Tip 2: Care about Your Clients

 

Often as a freelancer, you will be working as part of a larger project (e.g., you may be writing content for a website while others are designing it, coding it, promoting it, etc.). So take an interest! If you feel it is appropriate, do not be afraid to ask your client conversationally “How is it going?”. This is particularly true when you are working for smaller companies.

Tip 3: Stay Cool!

Freelancing can be stressful.
Deadline looming? Forget your weekend off!

 

When you are snowed under with work to do, it can be difficult to stay positive and appreciate the world around you. At times like this, it is crucially important to maintain a sense of humor and keep things in perspective. Staying cool under pressure is much more attractive to a client than tearing your hair out.

Tip 4: Be Totally Reliable

You are a professional selling a service. If you say you will finish the work by Friday, get it done by Friday. Stay up all night, hire other freelancers to help you, do whatever it takes. The best way to lose clients is to let them down—so don’t! Ever!