Business & Money | Friday 9 January, 2015 12:55 am |

twofour54, the commercial arm of the Media Zone Authority - Abu Dhabi continues its leading role in supporting Arab youth across the region to boost their skills in the media industry. This week a top-level delegation from twofour54 including HE Noura Al Kaabi, twofour54 Chief Executive Officer and Maryam Al Mheiri, Chief Operating Officer, attended the official launch the Saudi Broadcast Corporation’s (SBC) new media training center in Riyadh, KSA. The launch ceremony was officiated by the Saudi Minister of Culture and Information, Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Khudairi and was attended by the President of SBC, HE Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Aziz Al Hazza and many industry professionals and journalists.

The Saudi Broadcast Corporation recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with twofour54, which will benefit the employees of SBC by offering training courses in different areas including TV live directing, TV news reporting, radio programming and news production. The courses are developed and executed by twofour54’s training academy, tadreeb.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Hazza said: “The Corporation is working to implement a comprehensive development plan that seeks to put media knowledge to use in the field in order to spread creativity among the trainees. This is the reason we chose to create an integrated training center that is fully equipped with the tools to reach the highest level of media standards and knowledge.”

Al Hazza added: “In the interests of developing the best quality of training, the center will work with a number of specialist training institutions and bodies and we are delighted that twofour54 is the first.”

During her visit the media center, twofour54 CEO, HE Noura Al Kaabi, expressed her happiness that the partnership between twofour54 and SBC is in place and desire of twofour54 to help develop the media industry and boost the skills and knowledge of all media professionals in the Gulf and the MENA region.

Al Kaabi: our aim is to open doors for Arab talent

As part of her speech at the opening ceremony, HE Noura Al Kaabi highlighted the impact of the recent digital revolution on the media industry. “In the course of the past decade, we have witnessed a number of emerging media tools and platforms. This has resulted in improved positioning for the media industry and its impact on society in two ways: the social role of media tools and platforms, and the development of media as an industry that is critical in creating a large number of employment opportunities. Providing continuous training and skill-development opportunities to keep up with the fast-paced growth of the media industry and to enhance the chances of employment for young Arabs is crucial. We believe that this process will in turn ease the transition from the current perception of traditional media that prevails in this part of the world,” she said.

Al Kaabi reiterated twofour54’s commitment to developing the media industry and considered the great influence it has on the young Arab generation by saying: “We realise the significance of developing this industry and creating opportunities for young talents who are eager to join the workforce. Our goal is to enhance and elevate the media industry specifically through establishing training units that offer best-in-class educational courses in the different fields of media, delivered by seasoned professionals and training experts.”

The agreement with the SBC will benefit 260 Saudi media professionals across a variety of media disciplines over a six month period, and consitutues part of an overall plan that aims to transform knowledge into easy-to-use modules and applications to encourage the spirit of creativity among trainees.

More than 7000 graduates

twofour54’s tadreeb is the region’s foremost media training academy, which provides world-class courses across diverse media sectors. It has so far equipped more than 7,000 professionals with the necessary skills to take up positions in state sponsored broadcasting companies as well as government entities in the wider MENA region.





tadreeb’s sophisticated curriculum focuses on adapting students to both the Gulf and international media environment. The academy offers more than 200 courses designed by instructors from internationally respected media outlets. It is also supported by global training organisations for quality instruction and shares partnerships with world media outlets to enable important training opportunities for students.

tadreeb’s state-of-the-art facility is home to the world’s first Cartoon Network Animation Academy, which trains the MENA region’s next generation of animators, and twofour54’s Gaming Academy that was established in partnership with Ubisoft and SAE Institute to coach students in Game Development Design.