Digital skills provide Arab women with opportunities amid pandemic

Digital skills provide Arab women with opportunities amid pandemic

AMMAN--As COVID-19 swells the ranks of unemployed women in the Arab world, surging demand for digital skills could help many of them find work in a region where only one in four women has a job.

The pandemic has taken an especially heavy toll on retail, tourism and hospitality jobs traditionally held by women, but experts say those able to retrain could tap into growth areas like digital marketing, e-commerce and online customer support.

“This is a tremendous opportunity. These are areas where you can re-skill someone relatively quickly,” said Jasmine di Florio, senior vice president at Education for Employment (EFE), a job training non-profit for young people in the Middle East and North Africa.

Lebanese entrepreneurs from different internet start-up companies work in Beirut's Hamra district. (AFP)“We need to teach young women