Dr. Mazen Ali, Dean of the College of Information Technology at the University of Bahrain/Image: Supplied
In a region racing to diversify its economies and prepare for an AI-driven future, the question facing policymakers, universities, and enterprises is no longer whether digital skills matter, but how fast education systems can keep pace with industry change. As artificial intelligence reshapes job roles, business models, and productivity expectations, the pressure on higher education institutions to evolve has become acute. For Dr. Mazen Ali, Dean of the College of Information Technology at the University of Bahrain, the solution lies in closing the long-standing gap between academic theory and real-world application.
“When we talk about AI literacy, we’re not just talking about understanding technology. We’re talking about rethinking what it means to be educated in the 21st century. Just as basic computing literacy became non-negotiable in the 2000s, AI fluency will become the baseline skill from here onwards,” Dr. Ali has observed in a recent discussion on higher education and technology.
“The majority of future jobs will interface with AI systems in some way or the other, whether through data tools, intelligent systems, or automated workflows.” This shift, he argues, requires universities to rethink not only what they teach, but how they teach it, moving beyond static curricula towards continuous, industry-aligned learning models.
This challenge is particularly pronounced in the Middle East. Governments across the Gulf and wider region are investing heavily in digital infrastructure, AI adoption, and cloud-enabled public services as part of long-term economic diversification strategies. Yet the supply of job-ready ICT professionals has struggled to keep pace. A new global whitepaper developed by Huawei in collaboration with IDC highlights the scale of the problem, warning that the Middle East and Africa region is expected to face an additional shortage of approximately four million ICT jobs, making it one of the fastest-growing regions globally for skills shortfalls.
The same research underscores a structural issue at the heart of the talent gap. While technical knowledge systems now evolve every 18–24 months, traditional degree programmes typically take five to seven years to update. Nearly half of surveyed organisations globally say university curricula do not fully align with real industry needs, leaving graduates underprepared for fast-changing roles in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
“The pace of change in the ICT sector is exponential. Technologies that dominate industry practice in one year can become obsolete by year three,” Dr. Ali remarked.
Huawei’s ICT Academy
It is against this backdrop that Huawei’s ICT Academy has positioned itself as a bridge between academia and industry. Launched to support universities with industry-relevant curricula, practical training platforms, and professional certification pathways, the programme aims to embed real-world ICT skills directly into higher education environments. Rather than operating as a standalone training initiative, the ICT Academy model is designed to integrate with national education systems and university programmes.
In the Middle East and Central Asia alone, Huawei has partnered with more than 330 universities and institutions, benefiting over 500,000 students. Globally, the programme spans more than 110 countries and has trained over 1.3 million learners. These numbers reflect not only scale, but a deliberate effort to localise delivery, ensuring that training content reflects regional priorities and labour market needs.
The University of Bahrain offers a case study in how this collaboration works in practice. Having joined the Huawei ICT Academy in 2016, the university has used the partnership to modernise its IT curriculum, embed hands-on labs, and expose students to industry-standard technologies. According to Dr. Ali, the value of the programme lies in its emphasis on application rather than theory alone.
Dr. Ali said: “For us at the University of Bahrain, working with Huawei isn’t about short-term training. It’s about positioning Bahrain in the heart of the region’s intelligent ecosystem transition.”
Through joint initiatives such as hackathons, certification tracks, and participation in the Huawei ICT Competition, students are challenged to apply classroom knowledge to real technical problems. These experiences, Dr. Ali notes, help cultivate not only technical competence but also creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving—capabilities that employers increasingly value alongside coding or systems expertise.
The focus on competitions and experiential learning also aligns with findings from the Huawei–IDC whitepaper, which highlights that AI is not only creating new roles but transforming existing ones across all ICT domains. Cybersecurity professionals, for example, are shifting from manual monitoring to overseeing AI-driven threat detection systems. Cloud engineers are increasingly expected to design AI-native, self-optimising infrastructures, while software developers must integrate AI capabilities into everyday applications.
As a result, organisations are prioritising a new blend of skills. The whitepaper identifies cybersecurity, AI application development, and cloud technologies as the most urgently needed capabilities over the next 18 months. Yet more than 65 per cent of enterprises surveyed globally report delays in digital transformation due to skills shortages, underscoring the economic cost of inaction.
Recognising that curricula cannot evolve without educators, Huawei’s ICT Academy places significant emphasis on training faculty members. Thousands of lecturers worldwide have received ICT Academy certification, enabling universities to refresh course content continuously and adopt new teaching methodologies. This educator-first approach is particularly relevant in regions where access to advanced ICT training has historically been uneven.
The Middle East edge
In the Middle East, these efforts are increasingly supported by region-specific initiatives. In late 2024, Huawei launched the T.H.E. GOLD Talent programme in collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. The initiative aims to strengthen digital and intelligent talent pipelines across the Middle East and Central Asia, with a long-term ambition to cultivate up to one million digital talents over the next decade.
For universities, the broader implication is a shift in how success is measured. Rather than focusing solely on graduate numbers, institutions are being asked to demonstrate employability, adaptability, and relevance to national digital agendas. Dr. Ali argues that partnerships like the ICT Academy enable universities to play a more strategic role in national development.
“If universities do not co-develop and co-create with leading technology partners, they will not be able to catch up with the pace of change.”
As Middle Eastern economies accelerate their transition towards AI-driven growth, the alignment between education and industry will become an increasingly decisive factor. Programmes such as Huawei’s ICT Academy illustrate how long-term, structured collaboration can help close skills gaps, modernise education systems, and prepare a new generation of professionals for an intelligent, fast-changing world.
