IMI Media Academy and the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation have announced a five-year partnership to develop Arab media talent, aiming to reach 29,000 young people and train them for careers in the field.
Under Al Ghurair Voice Lab, the partnership will connect education and skills development with practical experience and professional opportunities.
It will also help create pathways into the media sector by offering access to internships, placements, employment opportunities and other forms of professional development.
Seven connected programmes will cover the foundational media skills, advanced professional upskilling, university curriculum integration, storytelling for school pupils, national youth initiatives and regional programming across the Arab region. These will provide young people with technical and professional skills, practical learning, mentorship and direct exposure to media professionals and workplaces.
The agreement was signed by Ali Al Hammadi, chief operating officer at IMI, and Dr Sonia Ben Jaafar, chief executive of AGF, in the presence of Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and chairman of IMI, and Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, chairman of AGF’s board.
The partnership comes as rapid changes in technology, audience behaviour and media production reshape the skills required across the industry.
It brings together IMI Media Academy’s industry expertise, professional training capabilities and access to a media ecosystem with AGF’s regional experience in education and youth empowerment and its learning-to-earning approach, connecting skills development with pathways to meaningful professional opportunities.
The partnership builds on the organisations’ existing collaboration through the Nomu Al Ghurair Siraj programme, which has equipped 450 graduates with future-ready media skills and provided opportunities to engage directly with the media industry. The five-year plan expands that work in scale and ambition, with a greater focus on connecting learning to tangible professional opportunities.
“Media has an important role in how our region sees itself and how others see us. That makes investing in the people who will shape its future especially important,” Dr Ben Jaafar said.
“Young people will have the chance to learn within a real media environment, develop their skills alongside professionals and see a clearer route into the industry. We want young people across the Arab region to have the skills, the access and the space to contribute their perspectives and tell the stories of their communities.”
Khalid Al Hosani, director of operations at IMI Media Academy, said: “This partnership is about building a stronger pipeline of Arab media talent – not simply delivering training. By connecting education directly with practical experience, mentorship and professional opportunities, we will help thousands of young people move from learning about the media industry to actively contributing to it. Our ambition is to create a model that delivers measurable outcomes in the UAE and can be expanded across the region.”
Chantal Saliba, director of media and training at IMI Media Academy, said: “Media cannot be learnt from a classroom alone. Young people need the opportunity to work with experienced professionals, understand how newsrooms and creative teams operate, and develop their own voices through practice. This partnership will give them that exposure – helping them build not only the technical skills required by today’s industry, but also the judgment, confidence and curiosity needed to shape its future.”
The partnership will launch in the UAE and is expected to expand across the region over the five-year period. AGF and IMI Media Academy aim to strengthen the pipeline of skilled Arab media professionals and create clearer pathways for young people to move from education and training into the industry.
