Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Coding boot camp for aspiring software developers starts in the West Bank
A German IT company has started an academy to train Palestinians in software development. Despite the pandemic's challenges, it managed to run its first boot camp in Ramallah in the West Bank.
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 to learn and try to solve an algorithm problem.
"I am so glad that we don't have to take this course online because of the coronavirus," says Tala Qawasmi. "It's challenging to work in a team; everybody has their own ideas. But it is so important to work together and to put all our thoughts into one problem 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.
For now, the program, which is funded by the Palestinian Authority, utilizes a 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, were postponed until 2021.
Academy open to non-IT backgrounds
What makes the academy special is that it is open to professionals and graduates from different fields. Only about half of the participants have studied information technology. The age of participants ranges between 18 and 51. This shows how for many among them, the program serves as professional reorientation.
"We aimed at finding people
either from different backgrounds, but with commitment and passion to change their career path, or for fresh graduates," says Toffaha. "They also have to commit to four months, six days a week and hard work 10 to 12 hours a day."
Another essential recruitment criterion is 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 encour
aged 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 22year-old business administration graduate recently lost her job in customer relations because of the coronavirus pandemic. The academy, she says, gives 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 did I do 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 has some basic knowledge of coding but not enough as she admits. She has 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."
Using German know-how
Within the next five years, the Axsos Academy aims to train about 5,000 Palestinians in software development. "The idea had originally come up in a 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 Müller, CEO of Axsos, on the phone from Germany.
"The focus was on high-quality training, and he emphasized 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 brought parts of its customer service department to Ramallah. The company offers medium-sized companies solutions in IT security, infrastructure and digitalization.
Read more: Long-time Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat dies
Palestinians have several unique selling points, Müller 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 in reading between the lines than us Germans and that is an advantage in dealing with customers," he says. The territories have the ability to strongly position themselves 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, where Wadi in Arabic means valley. US global companies like Cisco, Microsoft and Google have been deeply anchored in neighboring Israel and are also supporting the development of the Palestinian technology ecosystem.
There is a startup 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 got accustomed to working in the borderless virtual cloud, even though Israel first allowed the West Bank to be connected to the 3G mobile network only 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 digitalization 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 skillsets and market needs, also in an international context. "This program really is to help in bringing both together. That they have the right technical skills, soft skills and practical experience that are needed."
For now, top of mind for students Tala Qawasmi and Ghada Qaraeen is to finish the boot camp in person. They worry about the possible alternate 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 those problems together."
Fuels (PSPA) told DW.
"We are now preparing for mass production, to a level as high or even more than MAN," Michal Mackowiak, deputy CEO of Rafako Ebus, a subsidiary of the Polish firm Rafako, told DW.
The Industrial Development Agency (ARP) has acquired one of Rafako Ebus's local units and plans to make large investments in the company, Mackowiak said.
Meanwhile, Volvo's site in Wroclaw is the only production facility operated by the company in Europe, which manufactures electric buses. The plant recently won orders for over 850 such vehicles. Skania also produces electric buses in the northern Polish city of Slupsk.
It is estimated that about a third of all electric buses in Europe are manufactured in Poland, led by Solaris Bus & Coach, since 2018 owned by Spanish CAF. Solaris had the biggest share of newly registered buses with electric motors in western Europe in the first three quarters of 2020. In the period, 242 of its Urbino electric buses rolled out onto the streets of European cities, Wisniewski said.
Read more: The batteries of the future: Sodium instead of lithium
Of the 1,000 electric buses newly registered from January to
September 2020, nearly a quarter were produced by Solaris. In Poland, 96% of the 114 newly registered electric buses bear the Solaris logo. Solaris's share of newly delivered electric buses amounted to 83% in the Italian, and 43% in the German market. The company has a market share of about 18% across Europe.
Solaris's Mateusz Figaszewski told DW that MAN's move into Poland and the electric bus sector was not a great surprise. "It is great that Poland is being seen as a sophisticated place to make such products and will for sure help the supply chain in the country, but we have a much more international outlook than others, so it doesn't affect us much." Solaris, he added, is also looking closely at expanding its hydrogen-powered electric bus production, having already seen 69 roll off the production line.
Small step for MAN, giant step for Poland
Poland has a combination of government support, a good geographical location for exports in Europe, a well-developed supply change and network of local parts producers, including battery manufacturers and is still cost competitive, Mackowiak says.
Ekoenergetyka-Polska based in Zielona-Gora, in southwest Poland, is among the leading suppliers of electric bus charging infrastructure. The company has to date produced charging stations for electric buses for 70 cities in 16 European countries, such as Germany, Spain, France, Sweden or Norway.
The strong production base in Poland is also strengthened by its own growing fleet of electric buses. Between 2016-2020, the number of such vehicles on Polish roads increased by 16 times. In the first 10 months of 2020, 154 new electric buses were registered in Poland, a 276% rise over 2019. The tenders for 130 electric buses in Warsaw or 50 electric buses in Krakow are among the largest acquisitions in recent years. In Jaworzno in Silesia, electric buses will constitute 80% of the municipal bus fleet in 2021.
Polish government helps
The Polish law on electro mobility and alternative fuels introduced in 2018 stipulates that the fleets operated by local authorities in municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants are obliged to hold a share of at least 5% electric buses in 2021; 10% in 2023; 20% in 2025 and 30% in 2028.
The development of the electric bus market in Poland is supported by efforts made by the public administration, such as the Green Public Transport, which will be launched in 2021. As part of this program, the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management will dedicate 1.3 billion zlotys (€290 million; $330 million) for subsidies and loans for local authorities investing in electric buses, hydrogen buses and the necessary infrastructure. The projected amounts will allow for the acquisition of at least 500 zero-emissions buses as part of a school electric bus procurement program called Kangur, or "kangaroo" in Polish.
Madrid is one of the largest markets for electric buses made in PolandChina leads, but Europe catching up
Globally, China accounted for 99% of electric buses registered in 2018, however, this is forecast to decrease to 88% in 2025 as other countries adopt electric buses, according to market researcher Interact Analysis. Build Your Dream, a Chinese company with a production unit in Hungary, is Europe's second-largest electric bus maker.
But things are changing. Fifty European cities have signed the Clean Bus Deployment Initiative — a declaration of intent promoting large-scale deployment of clean, alternatively fueled buses.
Read more: Can German technology feed Europe's lithium appetite?
According to an analysis by the Brussels-based think tank, Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UITP), approximately 50% of the buses sold in Europe are operating according to the Euro 3 standard or older. To reduce carbon footprints, European emission standards have been introduced that require all the buses to meet the Euro 6 emissions standards.
The European electric bus fleet has increased nearly 15fold over the past five years, according to UITP. Aida Abdulah, senior manager of knowledge and innovation at UITP, said the trend since 2017 for electric bus production in Europe has been rising strongly. "The pandemic has confused things a little, but will likely continue to see very strong growth," she told DW.
According to estimations from UITP's ZeEUS program, 22% of all new bus registrations in 2020 will be electric and this number will continue to grow to 45% by 2030.
This article was updated on December 7, 2020, removing earlier mistakes concerning the post of Michal Mackowiak and an ARP acquisition.