Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that its programme to encourage young people to study and eventually pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has reached 10,000 UAE students since its launch last year.

‘Engineer the Future’ is a schools-based programme that helps students understand how the science, technology, engineering and mathematics principles they learn about in the classroom are applied in the UAE industry. These subjects are collectively known as STEM.

EGA employs over 1,540 STEM experts, including more than 500 UAE Nationals. ‘UAE Vision 2021’ identifies STEM skills as vital to the development of a competitive, knowledge-based economy in the UAE.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said “To achieve our national goals, more young people need to pursue careers in STEM fields. We know from our own research that many young people are interested in these subjects, but in the end choose to do other jobs. ‘Engineer the Future’ is EGA’s contribution to inspiring our young people to become STEM professionals.”

EGA’s ‘Engineer the Future’ programme has visited 38 schools so far in the UAE.

In September, EGA expanded ‘Engineer the Future’ with a new national competition in science, technology, engineering and maths for high school students. The competition is called the ’EGA Aluminium Design Challenge’.

With a cash prize for the winning team, the ‘EGA Aluminium Design Challenge’ invites teams of high school students from grade 9 to 11 to apply the principles of science, technology, engineering and maths to create aluminium-based innovations in Futuristic Transport, Packaging for Humanitarian Relief, Architectural Marvels and Kinetic Art.