Software developers at coding boot camp in Silicon Wadi

Students from Axsos' first boot camp in Ramallah (photo: DW/Tania Kraemer)

A German IT company has started an academy to train Palestinians in software development. Despite the pandemic's challenges, it has managed to run its first boot camp in Ramallah in the West Bank. Tania Kraemer reports

By Tania Kraemer

Small teams are stretched out over the entire space to maintain a safe distance from each other. Face masks are obligatory. But this doesn't deter the students from having lively discussions while learning and trying to solve algorithm problems.

"I am so glad that we don't have to take this course online because of coronavirus," says Tala Qawasmi. "It's challenging working in a team; everybody has their own ideas. But it is so important to work together and to pool all our thoughts and ideas in order to eventually come up with a solution." The 25-year-old female trainee is part of the first "cohort" of the new Axsos Academy, an intensive coding boot camp for aspiring software developers in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The original four-month traineeship had to be postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Among the 2,500 people who applied from all over the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, only 43 made it into the first cohort.

"It's a huge challenge. We have to make sure that the place is not crowded, to push for wearing masks and to keep a safe distance. This is the new normal we are living in," says Shirin Toffaha, Axsos' human resources manager.

Two students from Axsos' first boot camp: Ghada Qaraeen (left) and Tala Qawasmi — Twenty-two year-old business administration graduate Ghada Qaraeen recently lost her job in customer relations because of the coronavirus pandemic. She sees the academy as an opportunity to widen her professional horizons: "The first two days, I was like, what am I doing to myself? This is way too hard. But then, step by step, with all the time you put into it, you learn the languages and the algorithms. It's good"

For now, the programme, which is funded by the Palestinian Authority, is using one floor at the Ministry of Telecommunications. Plans to move into the academy's building in Ramallah, which will offer room and board facilities to the participants, have been postponed until 2021.

Academy open to non-IT backgrounds

What makes the academy special is that it is open to professionals and graduates from all different fields. Only about half of the participants have a background in information technology. The ages of those attending ranges from 18 to 51. This shows how for many among them, the programme serves as professional re-orientation.

"Our aim was either to find people from a range of different backgrounds, yet with the commitment and passion to change their career path, or new graduates," says Toffaha. "They are expected to commit to four months, six days a week and hard work for 10 to 12 hours a day."

Another essential recruitment criterion are English language skills. The boot camp is held in English and students are encouraged to practice it among themselves. Applicants who lack adequate language skills are encouraged to study and to apply again at a later stage.Long hours are not a problem for Ghada Qaraeen, who commutes back and forth between east Jerusalem and Ramallah to attend the course. The 22-year-old business administration graduate recently lost her job in customer relations because of the coronavirus pandemic. The academy, she says, is giving her the opportunity to widen her professional horizons, but she needs to catch up with those who have studied information technology.

"The first two days, I was like, what am I doing to myself? This is way too hard. But then, step by step, with all the time you put into it, you learn the languages and the algorithms. It's good," she says.

Fellow student Tala Qawasmi, an urban planner, already had some basic knowledge of coding, but not enough, as she freely admits. She had been working in geographic information management in the public sector and helped develop a navigation system for the Palestinian territories. "I was working in an IT department and got some expertise, but I didn't have the complete picture. This will enable me to build my own platform and my own applications."

View of Ramallah in the West Bank (photo: DW/Tania Kraemer) — The Palestinian USP – a strong sense of anticipation and the ability to read situations: skills Palestinians need on a day-to-day basis can pay dividends in a business environment. "They are 10 times better at reading between the lines than us Germans and that is an advantage when dealing with customers," says Frank Muller, CEO of Axsos. He believes the territories have the potential to provide a strong link between Europe and the Arab markets

Using German know-how

Over the next five years, the Axsos Academy aims to train about 5,000 Palestinians in software development. "The idea originally came up in conversation with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Stayyeh, who said he wanted more highly qualified software developers and asked whether we would be able to train them," recalls Frank Muller, CEO of Axsos, on the phone from Germany.

"The focus was on high-quality training, and he emphasised that a German company should take the lead, in order to convey our cultural approach."

For the past year 10 years, the Stuttgart-based IT company has invested in the area and transferred some of its customer service department to Ramallah. The company offers medium-sized companies solutions in IT security, infrastructure and digitalisation.

Palestinians have several unique selling points, Muller adds, in what he describes as a strong sense of anticipation and the ability to read situations. These are vital tools in the daily lives of Palestinians when, for example, they cross checkpoints. "They are 10 times better at reading between the lines than us Germans and that is an advantage when dealing with customers," he says. The territories have the potential to position themselves strongly in the Arab world and to be a link between Europe and the Arab markets.

Political conflict overshadows sector

For many years, Ramallah's tech sector has been described as the upcoming "Silicon Wadi" in the region, wadi meaning valley in Arabic. U.S. global players like Cisco, Microsoft and Google have been deeply anchored in neighbouring Israel and are also supporting the development of the Palestinian technology ecosystem.

There is a start-up scene with business accelerators and an outsourcing market that is served by local firms, even as the political conflict overshadows the sector. As Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement and travel continue, Palestinian tech workers have become accustomed to working in the borderless virtual cloud, even though Israel only allowed the West Bank to be connected to the 3G mobile network just two years ago.

According to the World Bank, about 3,000 IT graduates from Palestinian universities enter the market annually. However, even before the impact of the pandemic, youth unemployment was around 37% in the West Bank and over 60% in Gaza. Prospects for new graduates are grim.

"A lot of Palestinians don't find jobs in the sectors that they studied," says Jamil Isayyed, who trains the students and is head of digitalisation and software development at Axsos.

While it remains unclear whether there will be a market for more IT professionals, Isayyed says the academy is trying to bridge the gap between workforce skill sets and market needs, also in an international context. "This programme really is to help in bringing both together, to ensure that they have the right technical skills, soft skills and practical experience that are needed."

For now, the priority for students Tala Qawasmi and Ghada Qaraeen is to finish the boot camp in person. They worry about the possible alternative of distance-learning as a result of the recent rise in coronavirus infections in the West Bank. "We need this atmosphere," says Qawasmi. "We want to work together and solve these problems together."

Tania Kraemer