Entrepreneurship and Employability

Majarra is a technology company providing a single-subscription network of high-quality Arabic content platforms across diverse topics, partnering with leading global institutions like Harvard Business Review and MIT Technology Review to ensure excellence. We have been a supporter of Majarra’s Renaissance Partners programme for seven years, aiming to expand the reach of skills and knowledge to youth in the region. This initiative aims to provide free access to Majarra’s content-rich Arabic language platforms, partnering with global organisations like Harvard Business Review (HBR) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review to deliver high-quality content in business management, professional growth, and mental wellness.

By covering subscription costs, we ensure that more youth have access to essential digital resources, addressing skills gaps and fostering economic vitality in the region.

We believe digitalisation is essential for addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges, equipping youth with the tools to build a more equitable and sustainable future. As part of the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance 1 Billion Lives Challenge, we have pledged to impact 100,000 lives in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region by 2025, focusing on underserved communities through initiatives in digital access, telehealth, and digital skills development. As the first MENA-based business to join this effort, we have already reached 86,850 beneficiaries, supporting the Alliance’s mission to bridge the global digital divide in healthcare, finance, and education.

We partnered with Jordan’s Habaybna.net to launch a digital financial literacy initiative for children of determination across the Arab region. This collaboration resulted in the production of 50 educational videos and online courses in Arabic, focusing on basic financial concepts such as money management, the value of goods and services, and the principles of spending,saving and giving.

These resources, aimed at fostering financial inclusion, were made freely accessible. This project is significant in equipping children of determination who often lack access to such training with financial skills for independence and confidence.

To address the ongoing concern of youth unemployment in the Arab world, in 2013 Crescent Enterprises formed a partnership with Education for Employment (EFE), an international network of affiliated nonprofit organisations dedicated to creating economic opportunities for unemployed, high-potential youth in the Middle East and North Africa. As a key part of the partnership, Crescent Enterprises has extended its role as its founding Gulf partner, working to provide EFE with ongoing strategic guidance and networking support, in addition to exploring opportunities to jointly recruit, train, and place young Arabs within Crescent Group companies.

As a founding member, Crescent Enterprises assisted in the 2012 launch of the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT), the commercial, research and training arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the largest higher education institution in the UAE. In collaboration with HCT and CERT, Crescent Enterprises has sponsored over 50 graduating student projects, through which critical support is provided towards the ongoing development of UAE national students as well as access to job opportunities within Crescent Enterprises and its subsidiaries.

Crescent Enterprises spearheaded the creation of The Jafar Center for Executive Education, which offers a variety of executive education programmes directly related to businesses and government institutions in the UAE and the wider GCC Region. In addition to leadership development programmes adapted to the needs of each client organisation, the centre creates and delivers short courses on specialised topics, presents review classes leading to professional certifications, and provides expert advisory and consulting services.

Crescent Enterprises partnered with the Sharjah Ladies Club to deliver a series of entrepreneurship workshops for 8–13-year-old girls, fostering social entrepreneurship from an early age. 28 girls participated in workshops where they developed business ideas, built them into models, and pitched them to a panel of investors. Building on our dedication to supporting female entrepreneurs, we also collaborated on the Collage Talent Centre and Ebriez Exhibition, reaching 11,000 community members. This initiative provided women and children with entrepreneurial skills, workspace, and opportunities to develop their talents and contribute to the economy.

To uphold the importance of female leadership in business, in 2014 and 2015, Crescent Enterprises joined forces with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, to empower, mentor and support female entrepreneurs across the Middle East. Drawing from the strong workforce of Crescent Enterprises and its subsidiary companies, a group mentors were selected to provide their professional expertise and guidance to the Foundation’s “Mentoring Women in Business” programme in the Middle East for a course of one year via an online mentoring platform.

Crescent Enterprises has partnered with the largest network of social entrepreneurs, Ashoka, to increase the presence and impact of social entrepreneurs in the Gulf Region through the launch of the new initiative Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP). With the support of Crescent Enterprises, ASEP was launched to preselect the most promising social innovators in the region, who are working specifically to address the current challenges of obesity, water scarcity and women participation for inclusive growth.

Crescent Enterprises’ partnership with Dubai Cares was inspired by the need to immediately address the acute lack of educational infrastructure for underprivileged and neglected children. In 2013, we proudly committed our efforts and support to Dubai Care’s “Adopt a School” initiative to fund the construction of a school in Nepal. After one year of planning and several weeks of building, the school opened its doors to more than 160 children, ages 5 to 12, to receive primary education and serve as an additional space for adult literacy classes.