SPARK & Silatech Collaborate To Develop Youth Entrepreneurship in the Arab World

SPARK and Silatech, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on programs focusing on career guidance, skills and employability, and youth enterprise development in the Arab world.  Promoting large-scale job creation, entrepreneurship, access to capital and markets Silatech supports the participation and engagement of young people in economic and social development.

Areas of potential cooperation include educational and training materials, impact evaluation techniques, enterprise databases, civic engagement training, university entrepreneurship programs, online “virtual internships,” psychometric assessment tools to measure entrepreneurship potential, and access to finance and business development services for micro- and small enterprises.

A regional social initiative that works to boost employment, entrepreneurship and civic engagement opportunities for young people throughout the Arab world, Siltech’s CEO, Dr. Tarik Yousef was a keynote speaker at SPARK’s Expert Meeting in September of 2013.  Upon signing the agreement, Yousef stated, “As an organisation focused on boosting opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, with active programs in several Arab countries, SPARK is a natural partner with Silatech. We look forward to developing sustainable, impact-focused programs together with SPARK to benefit the youth of this region.” 

SPARK Director, Yannick du Pont, stresses that this cooperation will have immediate benefits for the young people both organisations work with “In the MENA countries we both already have operations, we are working hard to create immediate synergy between our programmes which can only benefit the young entrepreneurs we work for. Moreover, Silatech is clearly a leader in this field in the Arab world and we are learning a lot from their approaches and in depth knowledge of the region”.