A young Emirati entrepreneur has created a platform where the youth can connect with UAE start-ups and acquire relevant entrepreneurial skills that would help them either to build their own start-ups or jumpstart their careers.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/young-emirati-entrepreneur-alia-al-ali-creates-platform-connecting-youth-with-uae-start-ups-1.88901959
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Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/young-emirati-entrepreneur-alia-al-ali-creates-platform-connecting-youth-with-uae-start-ups-1.88901959
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm the co-founder of Startlinks, which is more of a digital platform that would enable more and more startup ecosystem in the UAE.
00:10I studied international relations at the University of Sharjah and currently I'm doing my master's at the University of Abu Dhabi, specialized in strategic leadership.
00:22Startlinks, first of all, is a digital platform that provides an eight-week opportunity for students or basically youth to come on board and have two areas of knowledge.
00:33Let's say, first of all, it's more of a theory kind of knowledge, where they would come and know about a startup lifestyle or a startup life cycle.
00:44And then it would be more of an on-ground work opportunity, where they can link to an existing startup and learn more about the day-to-day life of a startup.
00:59Now, why did I come up with the idea of being on board with Startlinks?
01:06First of all, Startlinks is a platform that leverages the power of mindset to enable students to actually help achieve a national and a global goal or development goal.
01:20Apart from that, it helps them use their talents, their capabilities for their own good and for their own personal growth and development.
01:29This all goes hand-in-hand with the UAE national agenda and in specific the entrepreneurship agenda, where it wants the UAE to be well-established by 2031 and have it as a hub for all innovators, investors, businesses and startups.
01:48So, in the pipeline, the UAE has set more than almost 29 initiatives to actually enhance the business environment and enhance the mindset of these young youth in the country to actually be ahead of that.
02:03The aim is to have more and more startups, and the aim clearly is having 1 million startups in the UAE, as well as 10 unicorns of startups.
02:14And definitely build that bridge or a stronger relationship between the private and the public sector.
02:22So, these two, I would say, are the main motives that made me to come on board and push for Startlinks to be one of the leading programs to create this, I would say, safe haven for young students to come on board and promote and create that more.
02:38So, it's more like a system in place where students would come on board and that would freely, purely go in hand with their own talent, their own preference, based on the available opportunities offered by the startups.
02:54So, yes, we are serving the talent of the student, yet we are serving the commercial benefit of that startup based on the need that they have.