January 14, 2017 – As part of its contributions to help improve human capital skills in the country in accordance with UAE Vision 2021, Imdaad, the GCC’s leading integrated facilities management (FM) company based in Dubai, has expressed its optimism for the year 2017 and has forged a strategic partnership with Al nokhba Model School in Dubai to convert a huge hall at the school’s campus into a state-of-the-art Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) laboratory and a library to encourage reading. Imdaad signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) with Al nokhba Model School to formalize the joint public-private venture that is expected to prepare students across the Arab state for the jobs of the future.

The company’s latest partnership is the leading FM firm’s response to UAE President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s move declaring 2017 as the ‘Year of Giving.’ The national initiative focuses on three main pillars, namely creating a sense of community responsibility in the private sector, enhancing the spirit of volunteering and encouraging specialized volunteer programs, and instilling loyalty and commitment in the next generations to serve their country.

By investing in the cutting-edge STEM laboratory, Imdaad is demonstrating its unwavering dedication to take on worthy causes that will have far-reaching benefits for the whole society. STEM has emerged as an important and indispensable component of the UAE’s shift towards a knowledge-driven economic framework. Additionally, the government’s heavy investments in this field is its proactive response to the global need for smart and alert students who will be qualified to join the burgeoning sectors of renewable energy, oil and gas, construction, real estate, finance, information technology, medicine technology, and health, among others, in the future. In the UAE, of the 43,000 students enrolled in higher education in 2013, only 30 per cent were in STEM-related fields. 

Jamal Abdullah Lootah, CEO, Imdaad, said: “By building this upcoming new best-in-class STEM laboratory and library, both Imdaad and Al nokhba Model School hope to encourage pupils across the UAE to pursue STEM studies in higher learning as well as inspire reading. The laboratory will be equipped with advanced and cutting-edge tools essential to nurturing the skills of our young students. Students nationwide will have access to the modern facility once its construction is completed, and we are confident that it will draw a great number of learners from all over the country. Through this joint project with Al nokhba Model School, we look forward to reinforcing inquiry-based science education in the country, which in turn will make our children more knowledgeable about science-related issues.”

Bushra Salem AlShoumi, Principle, Al nokhba School, added: “We believe that partnerships with socially responsible organizations such as Imdaad are vital to ensuring that our students have access to all the tools and facilities necessary for them to succeed professionally and personally. We appreciate Imdaad’s extraordinary efforts to help us provide a strong background in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to learners across the country while encouraging them to take up reading as an important lifelong habit. Our upcoming STEM laboratory is a testament to the great things that the education and private sectors can achieve together, and how forging a bright future for youths is a mission we can and should all partake in.”

The soon-to-rise STEM laboratory will also complement the Dubai Government’s ongoing smart initiatives launched to make the emirate one of the world’s highly innovative and smartest cities in the next few years. In line with these initiatives, the government has been pushing for increased collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve its set objectives of smart life, smart transportation, smart society, smart economy, smart governance and smart environment.