Teachers from 12 secondary schools across Egypt have attended the sixth annual Oracle Academy Institute, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The Institute is a one-week professional development forum for teachers, preparing them to teach the Oracle Academy curriculum and ready their students for future academic and business success.
The Oracle Academy is a partnership between Oracle and secondary schools, designed to equip 15-19 year-old students with database, SQL, Java programming, and general business skills. Oracle works directly with participating schools to provide extensive teacher training, ongoing support, a state-of-the-art curriculum, and an online learning environment.
“Quality teacher training is critical to help educators incorporate technology into their broader curriculum,” said Clare Dolan, Vice President of Oracle's Academic Initiatives. “We deliver the Oracle Academy Institute using a high-touch, personalized approach that includes some of our very best Oracle instructors, a high-school friendly curriculum, and cutting-edge e-learning technology.”
To prepare for the Institute's rigorous program, participating teachers attend pre-Institute training sessions consisting of online classes, quizzes, weekly conference calls, and ongoing email dialogues with Oracle Academy mentors. This process ensures that all teachers come to the Institute fully prepared for the intensive experience.
Once onsite, the teachers spend a complete week with Oracle staff, and are trained by a team of Oracle University instructors and seasoned teachers who have previously taught the Oracle Academy curriculum in their high schools. The teachers ultimately demonstrate their readiness to teach the curriculum by completing a project that challenges them to apply their new technical skills, as well as passing an exit exam.
The Egyptian involvement in the Oracle Academy follows a protocol signed jointly by Oracle, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), and will be rolled out to twelve schools for the 2005/6 academic year, benefiting approximately 360 students.
“The initiative demonstrates Oracle’s deep commitment to the successful development of IT in the region,” said Atef Helmy, Oracle’s managing director for Egypt. “Oracle is working closely with the government to ensure that a first-class business infrastructure exists, not only for today’s corporate leaders, but also tomorrow’s.”
Oracle is evaluating the possibility of establishing a permanent learning academy in Egypt for the next academic year, 2006/7, with the intention of training approximately 3000 students in up to 150 schools.
Oracle is the world’s largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at www.oracle.com/me or contact Aly Rifaah on +9714 3909000.
