How do we build an education system that truly prepares youth for the future? In this special episode of Below the Fold—recorded live at the Dubai AI Festival—Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar, CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation, shares how her team is using AI, skills-based learning, and smart philanthropy to bridge the gap between education and employment across the Arab world. From launching MAAN RAI—a new AI-powered job matching platform—to supporting rural women entrepreneurs and redefining learning ROI, Dr. Sonia’s approach is clear: the future of education must be human, inclusive, and purpose-driven. 🎙️ Hosted by: Naveen Bharadwaj
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In collaboration with @BelowTheFoldPodcast, @DATEwithTECH, @launchfoundryai, @DubaiAIFestival, and @DubaiAICampus
[00:00:00] Hello everybody. Welcome to this episode of Date with Tech, brought to you by Tricon in association with Launch Foundry, and below the fold. I'm Navin, your host, and with me I have Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar, the CEO of uh, Abdullah Alre Foundation. Sonya, welcome to date with Tech. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Well, happy to have you here. Uh, Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation does a lot of work, uh, particularly in the educational, uh, space. Before we talk about that, we wanna know a little bit about you and what you do. Outside of the foundation. Well, most of my time is spent being a mo a mom. Right. Um, which is a real pleasure.
And then whatever little time I have, I actually like to sail. I like to be on the water. [00:01:00] Nice. Yeah. You like to sail? So you are training or you're trained? You I am crew on some boats, right. And I have passed, uh, my theoretical course and now I am going to be doing my practical course so that I would be certified to charter my own sailor.
Fantastic. So the next time we do this podcast, you and I perhaps will be, uh, you know, on your charter. Sounds good. Very good. Where did you, um, where did you spend your early years? Where did you study? What did you do and what were some of the, the cool things that you might have done or not? Uh, yeah, so I grew up in Vancouver, BC.
Yeah. Uh, I was your average third culture kid. Me too. So, you know what that's like. You've got, uh, so your ability to adapt, uh, move around cultures, um, and appreciate the diversity is, uh, is kind of embedded in your upbringing. Yeah. And, uh, I studied in Vancouver. I went to the University of British Columbia.
I did my biochem degree first. Mm-hmm. And then, [00:02:00] uh, I worked in a cancer institute doing research. Right. Uh, and realized I was more interested in the human behavior of the researchers than the actual research in front of me, and decided I would go into social sciences and I became a teacher. Right. And so I taught overseas after that and then I thought, oh, this is so interesting, but there's so much more to learn so that I can do this.
Right. And then I landed in Toronto to do my master's and my PhD there. Mm-hmm. And I have been traveling the world since I did that, and I spent most of that time since in the UAE. Has that been social science since then, since your, uh, master's? Because from chem to, uh, to, to behavioral and psychology, and they're onto social.
So you enjoy the last, uh, the last bit of your education. I, I loved all of it. I loved biochemistry too. I think I just didn't like being stuck in a lab, was really it. But I, I find people fascinating. I [00:03:00] find learning the most interesting thing doesn't matter if I'm learning sailing, if I'm learning about gen ai or how I'm gonna do my job better.
Um, I just, I think that when you learn, you grow, and enabling that for others is something that just really makes me happy. Sure. As, as cliche as it might sound, it's a reality you learn every single day. You every single day from every single person. And I think, uh, here in the UAE, we see that as well, the leaders, the government.
Pushes you to learn every single day. Now, speaking of learning, speaking of education, so the foundation, uh, I know about the foundation, but for the benefit of, for those that are watching this, uh, session, can you tell us a little bit about the foundation and the work that you all do? Sure. So the foundation is, um, was set up.
In 2017, and it's Abdullah La Pere, who decided to give one third of his wealth in perpetuity to make sure that this very important passion of his, which was to make sure that educational opportunities were given to young Arabs, young Emiratis, so that they [00:04:00] could elevate their livelihoods in a very, uh.
Powerful way, and that's what the foundation does. So whether it's working with academic institutions like the American University of Beirut, MIT, university of Sharjah, Zaya University, it doesn't matter. Those are all of our partners. We try to really push forward the agenda of quality education and lowering barriers.
Like on, like making them go online and doing it right. Um, or not, sorry, not making them, but helping them because they already wanted to do it. Yeah. Um, I think that's what the philanthropy can do and we work very closely with government as well, and we respond to the needs mm-hmm. That they ask, uh, of us as a, a philanthropy that serves, um, the nation and the region.
And a lot of what we do is the work in the learning to earning space. So really it's. How do young people bridge to that job, that [00:05:00] entrepreneurship, uh, opportunity, that gig economy, because when they're graduating, sometimes they feel like, oh, I still dunno what I'm doing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that, uh, the direction that employability, that being ready for the world out there is still a massive gap, right?
Because traditional teaching versus the realities of the world then may not always match. So it's interesting to see that, uh, you're not just funding, but you're also working on, uh, that capacity build. Yeah, that foundation that they need. To go out there and compete and be the best. Yeah, it's, I, I don't wanna use the word noble, but it's, uh, it's amazing to see that, uh, one third of, of re wealth has been committed to the foundation as part of philanthropy.
If only every single wealthy person or successful person out there starts doing that, I think, uh, we'd be solving poverty issues, unemployment issues, educational issues, digital gap issues, and whatnot. Right. Well, I mean, I think, I think what's [00:06:00] magical about the Hur Foundation is that, um, his excellency AB is deeply involved in it.
And so one of the things that I'm impressed by is that, uh, the funds are nice. I, I will never complain. I think I'm one of the few. CEOs of a foundation where I don't have to fundraise because we do have that one benefactor. But what's uh, nicer is that we get the intelligence from the board. We get the intelligence from the partners.
So they're deeply involved because they want results, they want impact. They don't stop at, look, I've given funds. That's it. They wanna know what the ROI is on that. And I think that that's what makes the difference, because I'm treated like any of his CEOs. I have KPIs and I have biweekly meetings and all of this stuff that goes with being a business unit.
Well that's, I think, uh, interesting because they're committed to the purpose. Yeah. It's not about, I have money. And I'm gonna give it, and then you, you do whatever you want to, but it's, I'm committed to the purpose, [00:07:00] the purpose requires funding, which will come from us. Yeah. But accountability and the questioning aspect.
So, um, I'm, uh, I'm both happy and I'm unhappy. I'm happy that that is there. I'm unhappy because, you know, people think that foundations have an easy, cushy life, but you have to work, like you're, you're running a corporate boat, right? Yeah, I do. And the, the difference is, is that for me, the ROI is. Not, did the person get trained, that's not even good enough.
Mm-hmm. Our outcome metrics are did the person get a job? Did the person get promoted? Um, we work with diff a Diversity of Communities. I work with this really beautiful group of young women in rural areas who were training to be micropreneurs. Mm-hmm. Because they, they're not going to create an entrepreneurship to get B Series funding.
Yes. They're, they also don't wanna leave. Their, um, their community. They don't wanna come to the, to the big city. And as a third culture kid, you'll appreciate the [00:08:00] cost of, of that move. Yeah. So I, I really, I, I'm impressed by them and yet they wanna do something. And so the training for this is just one of our programs.
The Micro entrepreneurship program was tailored for their needs. And I'm so amazed by these women. That's true. I think, you know, results, but not short term. Yes. Long term. Yes. So that's the proper, proper, proper business, but purpose led business. Hope so. Yeah. Where does, uh, where does technology fit in in all the work that you do?
Where does artificial intelligence fit in in all the work that you do as Sonya? So for us, it's twofold. When we looked at the market and we looked at jobs of the future, the technology was already part of, of that. We were doing digital upskilling, um, with major partners. Um, serving, uh, over 30,000 young people.
We were training 30,000 young people to, for them to get, um, into that digital mm-hmm. Economy. That was [00:09:00] one piece of it. And that elevated when AI kind of took its boom because you could see that those are the jobs of the future. And we needed to make sure that we had programs like women in ai. We have programs, um, with regards to cybersecurity, um, design using ai.
Communications, all of it. It integrates into our training programs for the youth. So that's one piece of it. The other piece of it is how are we using it and how are we making sure that we're able to make some big bets on it? And one of the pieces that we're be officially launching, and I'm. I'll let you know now the 22nd of May, and you're welcome to join us.
I would love to, but we've been beta testing this for quite a while now, and it's called Maal re, and it's an AI platform that job matches based on skills. So not based on the job description and not based on your cv, but your actual skillset. And so we have corporates part of this, we have youth that are part of it, and what's really interesting is.
When, [00:10:00] for example, a youth comes in and says, well, this is what I know how to do. It gives you your skillset, and then it says, this is what I wanna do. Mm-hmm. This job. Mm-hmm. They will actually tell you, okay, that's a 67% match. Mm-hmm. And here is where you can get the educational opportunity, and that's what we provide to be able to bump it up so you're a greater match so you can actually get that job.
So it's no longer like just before. Do you know, do you know? It's very much. An algorithm that's based on market research. Fantastic. And then you also add, uh, you know, the psychological, the behavioral aspects, the NLP aspects to that, because profiles and CVS can be faked. And this is one of the challenges that most of the a TS, uh, tools were facing, right?
Yeah. Candidates were. Changing their cvs to reflect the nature of the jds, but uh, this tool does it also get into that level. They don't really see the jds before they, they put it in, so that's one piece of it. Two. Um, [00:11:00] Mossad is obviously open, but we actually embedded into our programs. Right. So it's. It is open to everybody, but the way to really get on is to come through our program so that you know better what pathway is, is, is right for you.
And we're still in the early stages, but I imagine that we're going to be embedding more assessments as more corporates get on board. Yeah, and we're really excited because our early tests have been very well received. Fantastic. So you are. Training, educating, and focusing also on that digital literacy aspect to make sure that, uh, the beneficiaries, or let's say your community stakeholders are future ready for the jobs.
And then you're saying that you have this beautiful. Matchmaking platform, the AI powered jobs matchmaking platform that helps them discover not just compatibility, but blind spots, gaps. So they can reinvest their time Exactly. In learning, but which is [00:12:00] funded by you all. Yes. But also reinvest it in the, because I, I find that youth wanna do it.
Yeah. So they wanna do the job. Yeah. They wanna do, they've been doing what they're told in school and university they've been doing. But they're lost and there's so much noise and I'm, and, and even when I, when I started talking to corporates about this and group HR leads, some of them when I said, gimme the profile who you're gonna hire in the next three years so that we can work on it.
Some of them said, Sonya, I can't do that for you. Right. I know. I don't know. I have not done that work. So we went with corporates who did do the work and who are, and who understand the talent pipeline and. That helped others as well, because we are trying to build a community. Mm-hmm. Because the talent pipeline, which is what the corporates look at them are, is your community of the future.
True. So this for us, this is the community and they have particular needs. Yeah. And they need to be able to take care of those needs. Sure. So [00:13:00] you're providing the talent for today, but you're also making sure that you're building the talent for tomorrow and the necessary skillset. That, that talent needs for tomorrow.
We're trying. We're trying, and with the advent of ai, again, another cliche, everybody says, oh, ai, will we lose jobs? Would there be enough out there? Do you guys also have these apprehensions? Do the youth that you work with have these apprehensions? Do the businesses that you work with have these apprehensions?
So it's funny because I don't think, when I talk to the businesses and I talk to the youth, they don't talk about it in that way. But then when you put it all together, there's a little bit of a fear culture around this, but I actually don't have that fear. Mm. I don't know, uh, of, you know, I am, I'm at an age where I've been able to look at the history of how things have changed and this fear culture around the big transformations has come up before.
Mm-hmm. Right. I've, I've, I've seen [00:14:00] this generation of, of, of fear culture, and what I found is that. The human condition, there is a, a human element that if we cultivate it, if we give it some attention, it will learn how to adapt the technology to elevate us all. Mm-hmm. Rather than just creating fear around it.
Yeah. Are we gonna lose some jobs? Yes, that's okay. We've lost jobs in the past. We're still around. People got re-skilled and that's something that we're willing to invest in what I think is important. Is that we look at the diversity around us and say, let's make sure that this particular community doesn't get left behind in a digital divide.
Yeah. That's what I'm more concerned about than are we gonna, we're gonna lose jobs, but more jobs are gonna get invented. Absolutely. That's what happened before. Absolutely. But communities getting left behind, that's what scares me. Yeah. And that has [00:15:00] happened. Yep. So. Progress. Yeah. Unified innovation as opposed to pockets or just concentrations of the so-called privileged urban masses benefiting from it.
Right. Yeah. And I do concur with you. Will there be job losses? I think yes. Will there be more jobs being created? Absolutely. Here we are at the Dubai Festival and I'm, uh, proud to tell you that, uh, with a bunch of different partners, we discovered and actually announced 200 plus jobs that are future tech, all the way from leadership up until developer level.
There you go. So the fears of, oh, I'm gonna lose my job. Instantly drops dead if you're not willing. If you're not willing to grow and learn, yeah. You are gonna get left behind. I think. Yes, AI or not, your laziness, your lack of adaptability, your resistance to change can actually, you know, just you're in your own way.
Yeah. Sometimes people are in their own way. Absolutely. Absolutely. So from a technology standpoint, um, AI of course is making waves in the education space. Are there any other technologies. [00:16:00] That are currently being proactively or actively embraced by the education sector, or you think in the next couple of years there'll be a, a huge wave and they'll impact the way people are taught, the way people are prepared for future, the way jobs are, uh, conducted.
I, I think that it's, it's beyond just ai, right? I think that education is at a transitional point where there. Their very existence in terms of the credentialing, in terms of the time it takes is being questioned. Um, so, and I'm talking about higher ed, especially when we're looking at the K through 12 system and education.
I don't know of parents who want to give their children's education, which is an incredible trust we give to teachers. To a robot. Yeah, because we want that human connection. There's something there when that [00:17:00] happens. And if you are a parent or an uncle who connects with, with, with your nephew or your niece or a teacher, you understand that there's a portion of it that's technical, but then there's a portion of it that's emotional and that emotional drives through.
The parts that are hard for that individual and that emotional connection is sometimes why a kid will try harder at math. Yeah. Right. And that's not necessarily gonna happen with a robot. Absolutely. Right. You, you know, this same podcast and conversation can also be had with a robot, but will the impact be the same?
Will the conversation be the same? Will the EI and EQ be the same? Will, uh. The robot's ability to analyze creativity, for example, or. Perspectives and respect different [00:18:00] perspectives for what they are as they are, as opposed to being a hundred percent rational and logical. Will the robot be able to do that?
Maybe not today, but with super intelligence Eventually. Maybe eventually. But you know, one of the things that really, um, kind of, if, if I was gonna have a fear, this would be it Yeah. Is that I can sit here and I can, and I have certain empathy. Yeah. And I have a cer a certain amount of EQ about something that it is, that is born out of my history and my exposure.
Yeah. But I also have biases. But here's the thing, when I'm talking, you know that I have a bias because I'm a human being. Yeah. There's an assumption that when a machine says that there's no bias, and that's what makes me scared because actually there is in the algorithms. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think, uh, we are only gonna discover along the way.
The differences, the similarities. And then, uh, it's interesting. Speaking of robots, it just in a thought comes to my mind. I think one of the first, uh, humanoids that the world saw, the name is quite similar to your [00:19:00] name. Oh, so that was Sophia. Oh yes. You were Sonia. So Sophia, quite a few rounds and it was, and everybody talked about it.
And now I think, uh, uh. The level of innovation that we've reached and the different types of bots that we see out there, you know, the, the humanized as well as the masks, mechatronics and industrial level bots. It's simply incredible. But that's a, a conversation for another day. Sonia, uh, if you had to give a couple of tips, advises or suggestions to the youth out there that might be worried or not about their future, or would that be There's never been a time.
Where there wasn't some kind of change that you would be worried about. Yeah. Right. Surround yourself with people who want the best for you. Surround yourself with people who you aspire to be like, and know that those human components will drive you to be better [00:20:00] and you will get to where you need to be with that drive.
And the rest is tech. It's, it's it's technology, it's technical knowledge, which is more easy to acquire. Yeah, it's easier to acquire than that inner strength and that boldness and the culture around you that will empower you to have purpose in your life and do better. Fantastic. So focus on yourself, focus on people, focus on the culture.
Everything else can be learned, everything else else can be taught. Thank you so much for, uh, joining us here on, uh, date With Tech. It was a real pleasure. Thank you having this conversation with you.