Ford Joins the Youth Hub in Bringing the ‘Henry Ford Entrepreneurship Academy’ to Dubai

The Henry Ford Entrepreneurship Academy continues to go from strength to strength in the Middle East, with the latest workshops taking place in partnership with the UAE’s Ministry of Youth Affairs at the Youth Hub – a new centre in Dubai for youth to connect to people, power, and potential across all sectors.   

The three-day HFEA workshop, The Entrepreneurship Journey, which embodies the efforts of the private sector to empower the youth, was designed to complement the work undertaken by the UAE government, which has recently created programmes and initiatives to encourage the youth to innovate, contributing to the welfare of the wider UAE community.

Aimed at enhancing the business-oriented education of prospective businesspeople, HFEA promotes the belief that entrepreneurship education has the power to become one of the most important economic forces in the world.

“Ford launched this unique programme, structured around workshops, to satiate the hunger for entrepreneurship that exists in the youth of this country,” said Simonetta Verdi, director, Government and Community Relations, Ford Middle East and Africa. “These workshops provide an environment for aspiring businesspeople to experiment with their ideas in direct exchange with mentors and coaches, to learn from people who have successfully navigated the entrepreneurship journey.”

Together with the Ford Motor Company Fund and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the Henry Ford Entrepreneurship Academy workshops offer a great opportunity for local future business leaders to excel in their endeavours, and influences them to think and act like entrepreneurs.

Guest speakers, academics and businesspeople who have successfully navigated the entrepreneurship journey were also on hand, acting as mentors, throughout the workshop to aid the building of entrepreneurial capacity through the introduction to key aspects of the Entrepreneurship Journey: Human Capital, Critical Thinking, Human Story, Mindset, and Set of Activities as a competitive advantage.


The three-day workshop culminated in a pitch competition for participants, whereby the business proposal deemed to hold the greatest potential, given the quality of presentation and display of acquired skills, was awarded with a much sought-after, in-depth, start-up consultancy from a premier US-based venture capital firm.

On this occasion, Soukaina Ben Bihi, head of programmes and activities at the Youth Hub, said: “The partnership with the private sector constitutes a key pillar for empowering youth and providing them with the skills and capabilities that enable them to develop their potential and expand their knowledge, which helps them in their contribution to the development of the community and the advancement of all sectors. The workshop, with its important themes, will motivate young entrepreneurs to adopt innovation as one of the most important tools to develop their expertise and contribute to building their future.”

The Ford Motor Company Fund invests about one third of the funds in support of education, including scholarships and programmes that help schools offer students new approaches to learning. Since its launch in 2015, the Henry Ford Entrepreneurship Academy has trained close to 300 entrepreneurs across the Middle East and North Africa.

Close to 100 aspiring businesspeople, from across both private and public sectors, applied for a place on the first HFEA workshop held in Dubai, with 40 applicants being granted a spot.