To conclude this year’s edition, the students presented detailed presentations about their two-week experience in Dubai; working with DEPE’s marketing team during Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) 2012, in addition to their recommendations to support current regional and global marketing strategies. The presentations were attended by Laila Mohammed Suhail, DEPE CEO, Mohammed Shail Al Saadi, DEPE CEO for the Licensing and Registration, and Ibrahim Saleh, DEPE Festivals Coordinator General and Deputy CEO, along with senior management of DEPE.
The programme grew from inviting just two countries and four universities in its pilot edition in 2006 to an impressive 75 universities from 12 countries this year, namely the UAE, Kuwait, KSA, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and for the first time Morocco. In the next three years DEPE would have covered most of the Arab countries, and will expand the programme to rest of the world.
“DEPE has continually strived to be the incubator of innovative initiatives and our goal has always been to ensure that Dubai is the destination for pioneering and innovative regional initiatives. To that end, The DSS Apprenticeship Programme, established in 2006, is considered one of the most successful Programmes in the region,” Laila Suhail, CEO, DEPE said.
With the successful conclusion of the 2012 edition of the programme, DEPE has implemented key improvements, year on year, to enrich the students’ experience. We plan on increasing the number of participating markets and universities steadily over the next three years to reach 22 markets and 150 universities by 2015, inviting top universities from Sudan and Iraq to nominate their best and brightest marketing students to participate in the Programme next year, and the year after will expand to the North African markets of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia,” Ms Suhail, added.
“As is the custom of the Emirate of Dubai to launch initiatives with endless limitations, come 2015, when the DSS Apprenticeship Programme marks its 10th anniversary, the Establishment plans to take this pioneering internship Programme globally, looking into countries including the UK, Germany, Russia, India, China and Australia.”
“The programme has achieved a great deal of success since its inception, and is considered one of the most acclaimed academic programmes in the region. DEPE will continue to grow this initiative and increase its reach by targeting top universities across the globe, and improving its academic offerings with the latest international teachings in marketing and business management in general,” Festivals Coordinator General and Deputy CEO of DEPE, Ibrahim Saleh, said.
Part of its short-term goals, the new strategy includes attracting outstanding students from across the globe to learn, and share knowledge among their peers and offer young marketing talent access to the team responsible for creating one of the biggest destination marketing success stories in recent history.
The students were divided into groups and were asked to plan and present a creative marketing plan for the 2013 edition of Modhesh World, one of the most popular summer destinations for children in the region, visited by 500,000 people every year including residents and tourists from across the region through a comprehensive and exciting combination of fun, education and entertainment events, shows and surprises.
During their two-week internship, the students stayed at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, and were offered a chance to tour the facilities of one of the world’s leading business hospitality management schools managed by Jumeirah Group, the global luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding.
As part of their agenda, the apprentices were given the exclusive opportunity to directly interact with and learn from the DEPE team responsible for the planning and staging of DSS. They were also granted the opportunity to visit key organizations that contributed to Dubai’s successful projection on the international arena such as Emirates, Burj Khalifa, Dubai Cares, Burj Al Arab and the Hamdan bin Mohamed E-University. The students were exposed to an exciting agenda that also offered them time to relax and admire some of Dubai’s numerous world-class leisure attractions.