Charities team up to offer tech scholarships to young British Muslims

LONDON: A coalition of organizations from across the technology, education and charity sectors has come together to provide technology scholarships for young British Muslims that will open the doors to lucrative careers that can withstand societal change.

The scholarships, provided by the Aziz Foundation and Muslim tech not-for-profit organization Muslamic Makers, will unlock sought-after economic opportunities.

This year, the charities will provide six young people with scholarships worth a total of £25,000 ($33,668) for intensive boot camps to teach them to code, design computer software, learn how cybersecurity operates and work with data.

The courses will be provided by Makers, Europe’s first coding boot camp, and Love Circular, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities in design and technology to underrepresented groups.

These skills, Muslamic Makers said, are in high demand in the British economy, so learning them is a sure-fire way for young Muslims to move forward in life.

“The tech industry is very well paid. Access to careers in this pathway can help contribute to better social mobility,” Arfah Farooq, founder and CEO of Muslamic Makers, told Arab News.

Not only do these jobs pay well, she said, they also all but guarantee that anyone who makes it into the industry will remain employable for the rest of their lives.

“Better salaries are one thing, but actually going into a career that’s future proof would help generations to come,” Farooq said, adding that even traditional careers such as medicine and law are being changed and innovated by the tech industry.

Asif Aziz, Chair of the Aziz Foundation, which has been funding the studies of young Muslims in the UK for years, said: “Education creates opportunities for social mobility, and we recognize that despite the hard work and efforts of many, there continues to be significant equality gaps that hamper the social mobility of many talented, inspiring and ambitious British Muslims. As an organization, we are driven to reduce these equality gaps.”