MECA

Ahmed founded MECA when he noticed the discrepancy in the quality of education and opportunities between state and private higher education institutions. Ahmed and his friends started MECA to address this imbalance through organising careers fairs, guidance and business skills training. MECA has currently reached 150,000 students across its eight different project areas.

Initially MECA offered students basic job and interview guidance and organised employment fairs on state school campuses, inviting representatives from multinational corporations (MNCs) to engage students in order to increase recruitment. Over time MECA Academy developed into a mini-MBA to teach technically skilled students business skills that could help them find jobs or become entrepreneurs. Corporate sponsors offered to develop modules for this course as well as providing in-kind donations to support MECA’s work. MECA also offers an internship programme where corporate representatives run a simulated internship on campus. The recruitment process for both the internship programme and the MBA are very rigorous in an attempt to imitate the recruitment process for MNCs, giving all applicants experience of corporate recruitment practices. MECA has hosted the Imagine Cup competition for innovation and technology in conjunction with Microsoft. Additionally, they run open sessions for students to learn about the job market and entrepreneurship called MECA seminars. The organisation also runs programmes on entrepreneurial skills training, overseas postgraduate course applications, and the skills development publication MECAzine.