The DEIEDP-BHTPA success is dependent on entrepreneurs and firm employees having, or having access to, the right skills and so the project includes support for skills development. The skills development work supports the overall PRIDE component 4 objectives:

– More people in better jobs – 4000 new high skill, graduate, jobs will be facilitated by PRIDE. Employment opportunities in STPs generated by these new jobs, and by natural churn in existing jobs, are more skilled and more likely to be formal than in the wider labour market. This generates opportunities for nationals, but only if they have the right skills. Skills development will provide pathways into the STPs and High-Tech Parks (HTPs), including into the new jobs created, by offering skills development opportunities to 3000 beneficiaries which leads to a graduate job.

– More investment-ready SMEs – by offering technical, management and leadership skills required for business scale-up to management and employees of SME firms and their potential hires.

– More youth, women and professionals attracted to becoming digital entrepreneurs by providing entrepreneurial training and support for people who wish to start new businesses in BHTPA-supported STPs and HTPs.

– Women participating in ICT and ITeS industries – by improving pathways into ICT jobs. At least 40% of the new jobs facilitated by BHTPA’s PRIDE should be taken by females. The specific Component 4.2 objective is that 40% of the beneficiaries of training linked to employment in STPs and HTPs will be women.