Mohamed Farid talks to other young people during an event aimed at developing and empowering youth in Qatar
By Peter Townson
A new company, aimed at empowering and developing youth, is set to fill a “gap between companies and young people in Qatar,” according to its founder and CEO, who has highlighted the importance of investing in youth for the future of the country and its move towards the National Vision for 2030.
Mohamed Farid, 20, is a remarkable character and the youngest CEO in Qatar, having founded The Youth Company under the slogan ‘Youth Change Everything’ last year.
He is a highly motivated young man, passionate about the influence that youth can have on the development of organisations and the importance of training and personal development in fostering the advancement of young people.
Indeed, youth is a buzzword in any conversation with the man who has also registered his company in the US and Canada and has high hopes of establishing offices in other locations around the world.
“With such a multi-national team, I have people with knowledge that can be used all over the world,” he said, adding “now the team know how we work and what we stand for, they can go and carry out programmes in other countries.”
Farid’s core team is comprised of people from 14 different nationalities, who have come to Qatar to be part of his ambitious project.
Team members, including Caitlin Sewell, Sajid Mahamood, Adnan Jilani, Christian Fenner, Henry Haolong Yin, Evgenia Berestneva, Monika Michalak, Sajida Hassan and a number of other individuals, are responsible for various aspects of the company’s programmes, and have come to Qatar from all over the world to be part of Farid’s initiative.
Running corporate consultancy and other ventures as part of his company allows the company to reinvest funds in the training and development part of the organisation, which offers advice and skills training to people in Qatar free of charge.
While investment in Qatarisation and development of the local market are often seen as primary objectives for companies looking to boost the human capital within their organisations, Farid argued that youth empowerment is an essential aspect of Qatarisation and the development of the nation as a whole.
“Youth empowerment and investment in youth is the number one step towards Qatarisation,” he argued, adding that a major part of his company’s work is geared towards empowering Qatari youth.
Farid and his team believe that working with youth leads people to “expect the unexpected” claiming that adding a young aspect to a company can help to “zest it up.”
And so they have been working to zest up a number of organisations already, with grand plans for future development in both their corporate and their training work.
“We have had amazing feedback from the youth involved in our programmes so far,” said Farid, explaining that most of the communication runs through social media as well as a weekly newsletter updating people about upcoming projects and events.
However, Farid and his team explained that the most challenging aspect of their work so far has been convincing companies and major organisations that their initiatives are needed, and that investment in youth can bring about positive results in many different aspects of their business.
Despite initial concerns from a number of businesses, he said that the response has still been encouraging, and that he hopes to see more organisatons embrace the ideals behind his company and its aims to empower local young people.
“What we are doing is completely different and completely new,” he said, “but we feel that we can help bridge the gap between businesses and young people in Qatar, and this is something we feel passionate about doing.”