A group of five most promising female students of Middlesex University Dubai with IT background joined their counterparts in other Arab and African countries as IT giant Cisco hosted â€?Women in IT’ programme.
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The students were invited by Cisco’s graduate recruitment team to join the event in its country-head offices in various cities of the Middles East and Africa. Offices based in South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the UAE made arrangements for real time interaction between students at Cisco offices in Johannesburg, Riyadh and Dubai.This cross-border event was aimed to introduce these promising young students to career options within the IT and networking industry, as well as showcase Cisco’s flagship technologies to tomorrow’s leaders and innovators.

The young ladies interacted with each other using Cisco’s TelePresence system, a state-of-the-art teleconferencing system. They shared various aspects of their daily lives â€?face to face’, whilst gaining an understanding of very different cultures. The graduate team then led a career-skills session using Cisco’s WebEx technology with each office joining by phone and online.

Fayoke, a second year student at Middlesex University Dubai, said, “This was an absolutely exhilarating experience for us! I feel so fortunate to be chosen to attend this and meet new friends and use latest technology.�

Rawan, another IT student at Middlesex University Dubai, said that she had great time learning about Cisco and about other students who are following the same study-programme but in a different environment.

“This has definitely opened up my mind about Cisco and provided an opportunity to explore various ways in which can I contribute when the time comes,� she added.

Dr Uma Gunasilan, attending academic from Middlesex University Dubai, said that the students found this a refreshing and exciting experience.

“The exposure to the real world of the subject matter was a privilege as well as an essential to them to understanding how their daily studies relate to reality,� she added
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